»■      I. 


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LIBRARY 


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OF  -nm. 


ivERsiTY.oF  California. 


GIFT   OF" 

Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,  i8g4. 
zAecessions  No .  S*13 ^S  -      Class  No. 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/christianityscie0Opeabrich 


.^^ -.^  •vo-.-s 


Christianity  and  Science. 


a  Series  of  Hettures 


Delivered  in  New   York,  in    1874,   on 


THE   ELY   FOUNDATION   OF   THE   UNION 
THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARY. 


BY 


ANDREW   R  PEABODY,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

PROFESSOR   OF   CHRISTrAN    MORALS   IN    HARVARD    UNIVERSITY. 


[TJIIVBRSI 

NEW    YORK: 
ROBERT   CARTER    AND    BROTHERS, 

530  Broadway. 

1874. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874,  by 

ROBERT  CARTER  AND  BROTHERS, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


Cambridge : 
Press  of  John  Wilson  and  Son. 


T 


[tjhivbesity; 

PREFACE. 


nPHIS  series  of  Lectures  was  delivered,  by  ap- 
pointment,  as  the  third  course  on  the  founda- 
tion estabUshed  in  the  I?nid&  Theological  Seminary 
by  Mr.  Zebulon  Stiles  Ely,  of  New  York,  in  the 
following  terms :  — 

"  The  undersigned  gives  the  sum  of  ten  thousand 
dollars  to  the  Union  Theological  Seminary  of  the  city 
of  New  York,  to  found  a  Lectureship  in  the  same, 
the  title  of  which  shall  be  *  The  Elias  P.  Ely  Lec- 
tures ON  THE  Evidences  of  Christianity.' 

"  The  course  of  Lectures  given  on  this  foundation 
is  to  comprise  any  topics  that  serve  to  establish  the 
proposition  that  Christianity  is  a  religion  from  God, 
or  that  it  is  the  perfect  and  final  form  of  religion  for 
man. 

"  Among  the  subjects  discussed  may  be,  — 

"  The  Nature  and  Need  of  a  Revelation  ; 

"The  Character  and  Influence  of  Christ  and  his 
Apostles  ; 

"  The  Authenticity  and  CredibiHty  of  the  Scriptures, 
Miracles,  and  Prophecy ; 


IV  PREFACE. 

"  The  Diffusion  and  Benefits  of  Christianity ;  and 

"  The  Philosophy  of  ReUgion  in  its  Relation  to  the 
Christian  System. 

"  Upon  one  or  more  of  such  subjects  a  course  of 
ten  public  Lectures  shall  be  given  at  least  once  in 
two  or  three  years.  The  appointment  of  the  Lec- 
turer is  to  be  by  the  concurrent  action  of  the  direct- 
ors and  faculty  of  said  Seminary  and  the  undersigned  ; 
and  it  shall  ordinarily  be  made  two  years  in  advance. 

"The  interest  of  the  fund  is  to  be  devoted  to  the 
payment  of  the  Lecturers,  and  the  publication  of  the 
Lectures  within  a  year  after  the  delivery  of  the  same. 
The  copyright  of  the  volumes  thus  published  is  to  be 
vested  in  the  Seminary. 

"  In  case  it  should  seem  more  advisable,  the  direc- 
tors have  it  at  their  discretion  at  times  to  use  the  pro- 
ceeds of  this  fund  in  providing  special  courses  of 
lectures  or  instruction,  in  place  of  the  aforesaid  pub- 
lic lectures,  for  the  students  of  the  Seminary,  on  the 
above-named  subjects. 

"  Should  there  at  any  time  be  a  surplus  of  the  fund, 
the  directors  are  authorized  to  employ  it  in  the  way 
of  prizes  for  dissertations  by  students  of  the  Seminary, 
or  of  prizes  for  essays  thereon,  open  to  public  com- 
petition. 

"Zebulon  Stiles  Ely. 
"New  York,  May  8th,  1865." 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 


Page 
Prep'ace iii 


Lecture  I i 

Science  and  Christianity  defined 2 

Their  Sources  of  Evidence .  11 

I.  Testimony 12 

Dependence  of  Science  on  Testimony 12 

Antiquity  of  the  Gospels 15 

Lecture  II 23 

Genuineness  of  the  Gospels 23 

Testimony  of  Christian  Fathers 24 

Of  Heretics 35 

Of  Enemies 37 

Rules  of  Evidence 38 

Authenticity  of  the  Gospels 41 

Their  Authors  competent  Witnesses 41 

The  Gospels  complementing  and  interpreting  one  another    .  43 

Lecture  III 46 

Internal  Evidence  of  Authenticity 46 

The  human  Virtues  of  Christ 47 

His  ethical  and  religious  Teachings 54 

His  Influence 58 

The  Divine  Side  of  his  Character 59 

His  superhuman  Works  neither  Imposture  nor  Delusion      .  61 


VI  TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 

Page 

Lecture  IV 69 

Mutual  Resemblance  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels 69 

Their  Sameness  of  Style  and  Language  accounted  for     .     .  74 

Genealogies  in  Matthew's  and  Luke's  Gospels ']2> 

Proofs  of  the  Genuineness  of  John's  Gospel 79 

Its  Relation  to  the  Synoptic  Gospels 85 

Proof  of  its  Antiquity  from  the  History  of  Gnosticism    .     .  90 

Lecture  V 94 

Miracles  an  Obstacle  to  Faith 96 

Pantheistic  Objections 96 

Objections  from  the  Sovereignty  of  Law 96 

Objections  from  Experience loi 

Need  and  Use  of  Miracles 102 

Miracles  consonant  with  the  Person  and  Mission  of  Christ  in 

Verified  by  human  History 113 

Consistent  with  the  known  Methods  of  the  Divine  Adminis- 
tration    115 

Lecture  VI 118 

Paul's  Testimony  to  Christ's  Resurrection  the  earliest  extant  1 18 

Its  Source  and  Validity 119 

Accounts  of  the  Resurrection  in  the  Gospels 121 

The  Apostles  believed  in  Christ's  Resurrection      ....  123 

The  Church  built  upon  it 123 

Christ's  supposed  Reappearance  not  an  Hallucination    .     .  125 

Not  Revival  from  a  Swoon 128 

Uses  of  the  Resurrection 135 

Its  Proof  grows  with  Time 141 

Lecture  VII 143 

Alleged  Deficiencies  of  Christianity 144 

Its  Completeness  as  to  individual  Needs 145 

Reasons  for  its  Silence 146 

Its  Silence  a  Proof  of  its  Divinity 153 


TABLE   OF  CONTENTS.  VH 

Page 

Its  Treatment  of  Courage 159 

Of  Patriotism 160 

Of  Friendship ,  160 

Summary  of  the  Evidence  from  Testimony 162 

Lecture  VIII 165 

II.  Experiment 165 

Experiment  as  a  Test  of  scientific  Truth 165 

Claimed  as  a  Test  by  the  Author  of  Christianity    ....  166 

Christianity  as  a  Factor  in  the  Formation  of  Character  .     .  168 

As  a  Source  of  Energy 175 

As  a  Support  in  Trial 180 

As  sustaining  Hope  in  Death 183 

Cumulative  Argument  from  Experiment 184 

Lecture  IX.   . .  187 

Christianity  as  a  renovating  Power  in  human  Society      .     .  187 

What  it  promises  to  accomplish 188 

Its  rapid  Progress  in  the  first  Christian  Centuries       .     .     .  188 

Influences  opposed  to  it 189 

Its  Power  over  public  Sentiment 192  ^- 

Its  Agency  in  domestic  Life 195 

As  regards  Slavery 201 

In  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Government 205 

In  the  Relief  of  human  Want  and  Suffering 207 

No  other  Religion  to  be  compared  with  it 209 

Lecture  X 211 

III.  Intuition 211 

Scientific  Intuition 211 

Christian  Intuition 211 

Intuition  defined 213 

Objective  Intuition 214 

Subjective  Intuition  of  Christian  Ethics 218 

Of  Truths  appertaining  to  God 221 


Vlll  TABLE   OF  CONTENTS. 

Page 

Of  Truths  appertaining  to  Christ 222 

Evidential  Value  of  Intuition 224 

Summary 230 

Appendix 233 

I.  The  Testimony  of  the  Apostles 234 

II.  Notes 258 

Index , 283 


CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 


LECTURE  I. 

SCIENCE  AND  CHRISTIANITY  DEFINED. — THEIR  SOURCES  OF 
EVIDENCE.  —  I.  TESTIMONY.  —  DEPENDENCE  OF  SCIENCE  ON 
TESTIMONY.  —  ANTIQUITY   OF   THE   GOSPELS. 

^  I  ^HERE  is  no  scriptural  type  oftener  reproduced 
-^  than  that  of  Uzzah,  who  thought  that  the  ark  of 
the  Lord  would  be  overturned  because  the  oxen  shook 
the  cart.  Good  men,  in  every  age  of  unfettered  thought 
and  bold  investigation,  have  been  afraid  for  the  truth, 
and  afraid  of  the  truth  ;  unwiUing  that  inquiry  and 
research  should  have  free  course,  lest  their  results 
should  unsettle  verities  which  they  yet  profess  to 
believe  divine  and  eternal,  or  throw  discredit  on  rec- 
ords which  they  yet  maintain  to  have  been  written 
by  the  inspiration  of  God.  The  supposed  antagonism 
varies  with  the  spirit  of  the  times  ;  each  and  every 
department  of  learning  and  Hberal  study,  v/hen  in  the 
ascendant,  having  been  regarded  as  of  ill  omen  to 
religious  faith  and  piety.  Apprehensions  of  this 
kind  are  virtual  infidelity.  They  who  entertain  them 
have  not  the  firm  belief  which  they  profess,  and  their 
fears  do  more  injury  to  their  cause  than  can  be  done 


2  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

by  open  and  bitter  enmity.  While  they  mean  to 
be  loyal,  they  play  the  part  of  Judas,  and  betray  the 
Master  whom  they  love. 

The  chief  cause  of  alarm  at  the*  present  time  is 
found  by  timid  Christians  in  the  progress  and  ten- 
dencies of  physical  science,  as  hostile  to  the  authority 
and  prestige  of  the  Gospel.  That  speculations  and 
hypotheses  which  seem  opposed  to  Christianity  are 
rife  in  certain  quarters  cannot  be  denied  ;  but  that 
actual  and  ascertained  results  of  scientific  inquiry  are 
repugnant  to  aught  that  God  has  revealed  or  Jesus 
Christ  has  taught,  is  an  assumption  as  baseless  as 
the  most  absurd  of  those  made  in  the  opposite  camp. 
True  science  and  Christianity,  if  it  come  from  divine 
revelation,  cannot  by  any  possibility  contradict  each 
other :  they  must  coincide  as  far  as  they  cover  the  same 
ground  ;  and  it  cannot  but  be  that  at  numerous  points 
each  should  confirm  the  other.  If  God  is,  he  must 
have  put  his  signature  on  his  whole  creation  no  less 
than  his  impress  on  his  manifested  or  written  Word. 
The  hieroglyphs  of  nature  must  needs  correspond 
to  the  alphabetic  writing  of  revelation,  which  may 
interpret  and  supplement,  but  cannot  supersede  or 
falsify  them. 

But  what  are  the  science  and  the  Christianity  which 
we  may  expect  to  find  thus  coincident  and  harmoni- 
ous .-*  This  question  let  us  answer  with  due  care  and 
caution  ;  for  we  cannot  extend  our  statement  to  what- 
ever any  sciolist  or  erratic  student  of  nature  may 
choose  to  term  science,  nor  yet  to  whatever  any 
enthusiast  or  bigot  may  claim  as  Christianity. 


SCIENCE  DEFINED.  3 

In  the  first  place,  we  use  science  in  the  literal  sense 
of  the  word ;  for  in  this  sense  only  can  scientific  men 
claim  for  science  the  respect  and  deference  of  Chris- 
tians. Science  is  not  speculation,  but  knowledge  ; 
not  half-truths,  but  whole  truths ;  not  hypotheses 
which  may  explain  the  phenomena  of  nature,  but 
principles  which  do  explain  them,  and  at  the  same 
time  are  verified  by  them.  There  is,  as  you  well 
know,  such  science.  There  are  truths  appertain- 
ing to  the  material  universe,  of  which  there  is  no 
more  doubt  than  of  the  laws  of  number  and  pro- 
portion ;  and  I  have  yet  to  learn  that  there  is  any 
repugnancy  between  science  thus  defined  and  Chris- 
tianity. But  all  is  not  science  that  demands  to  be  so 
called.  This  name  is  wholly  inapplicable  to  theories 
which  include  only  a  portion,  and  ignore  a  portion,  of 
the  facts  or  phenomena  within  their  scope,  to  those 
which  from  their  very  nature  do  not  admit  of  proof  or 
verification,  and  to  those  which  are  of  too  recent  origin 
to  be  fully  verified.  The  opinions  of  scientific  men, 
however  plausible,  nay,  however  probable,  are  not 
science,  —  not,  even  though  they  prevail  so  generally 
as  to  make  dissent  from  them  seem  a  mark  of  an  illib- 
eral and  narrow  mind.  There  have  been  many  such 
opinions  thus  dominant  at  former  periods,  but  now 
obsolete,  and  even  objects  of  ridicule.  There  have 
been  such  opinions  inconsistent  with  all  received 
religious  verities,  which  have  shown  open  fight,  and 
have  threatened  the  very  existence  of  Christianity, 
but  which  passed  into  an  early  and  unhonored  grave, 
while  the  religion  that  they  assailed  survived  un- 
harmed. 


4  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

I  do  not  regard  the  theory  of  development  or  evoki- 
tion,  now  so  generally  received  among  scientific  men, 
as  necessarily  hostile  to  religious  faith  ;  for  there  are 
among  its  most  intelligent  and  able  adherents  some 
earnest  and  devout  Christian  believers.  Moreover, 
there  are  certain  aspects  in  which  this  theory  is  pecul- 
iarly attractive  on  religious  grounds.  If  specific  cre- 
ation implies  creative  wisdom,  much  more  is  it  implied 
in  the  endowment  of  primeval  atoms  or  monads  with 
the  power  of  development  into  all  the  various  and 
unnumbered  forms  of  organized,  sentient,  intelligent, 
moral,  spiritual  being  ;  and  we  have  thus  presented  to 
us,  were  it  possible,  even  a  more  sublime  significance 
for  the  opening  words  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  "  In 
the  beginning  God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth." 
Then,  too,  were  we  constrained  to  trace  our  descent 
from  an  ancestry  of  apes  or  frogs  or  infusoria,  we 
could  look  with  no  little  complacency  on  our  humble 
origin,  from  which  we  might  anticipate  further  develop- 
ment in  a  posterity  of  angels  and  archangels,  as  far 
superior  to  ourselves,  as  we  are  to  the  brutes  or  ani- 
malcules from  which  we  sprang.  When  we  compare 
the  alleged  beginnings  of  our  race  with  its  present 
condition,  there  is  no  limit  to  what  it  may  become, 
and  the  brightest  visions  of  prophecy  may  be  tran- 
scended by  the  history  that  shall  be  written.  Then, 
again,  when  we  are  told  that  the  individual  human 
being  actually  passes  through  the  various  forms  of 
his  lower  ancestry,  why  may  he  not  in  his  own  per- 
son pass  successively  through  all  the  higher  forms  of 
which  finite  being  is  susceptible  1    But  while  we  have 


CHRISTIANITY  DEFINED.  5 

no  reason,  as  the  friends  of  religion,  to  fear  these 
speculations,  we  are  not  called  upon  to  make  con- 
cessions to  them  or  compromises  with  them :  for 
they  are  mere  hypotheses,  are  entirely  unproved,  have 
no  claim  to  be  regarded  as  science,  and  have  not 
as  yet  complied  with  the  first  condition  of  science ; 
namely,  the  production  of  evidence  which  points  con- 
clusively in  their  direction.  From  the  nature  of  the 
case,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  they  admit  of  such 
evidence  ;  and  if  not,  however  strong,  however  well 
grounded  may  be  the  bias  of  the  scientific  mind  in 
their  favor,  they  can  have  no  argumentative  value 
against  truths  or  facts  which  purport  to  rest  on 
direct  evidence. 

We  now  ask.  What  is  the  Christianity  for  which  we 
can  claim  and  hope  to  establish  equal  validity  with 
that  of  the  accredited  truths  of  science  ?  I  answer, 
Simply  and  solely,  the  genuineness  of  the  divine 
mission  of  Jesus  Christ ;  that  is,  not  of  any  Christ 
of  one's  own  special  shaping  or  fancy,  but  of  the 
Christ  of  history,  of  the  Gospels,  of  the  Church, — 
including,  of  course,  the  substantial  authenticity  of 
the  evangelic  narrative  of  what  Jesus  was,  said,  did, 
and  suffered.  This  narrative  has  come  down  to  us  in 
human  language,  and  is  intimately  connected,  in  the 
faith  and  reverence  of  Christians,  not  only  with  con- 
temporary writings  that  may  illustrate  and  confirm  it, 
but  with  writings  of  a  much  earlier  date,  which  con- 
tain large  sections  of  biography  and  history,  numerous 
details  of  dates  and  incidents,  and  frequent  references 
to  opinions  of  their  times.     But  chronology,  secular 


O  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

history,  ethnology,  cosmogony,  names  and  dates,  gene- 
alogies, unscientific  opinions,  are  not  religion,  can  have 
formed  no  part  of  a  divine  revelation,  and  do  not  need 
to  be  verified  in  order  to  substantiate  a  revelation. 
"  We  have  this  treasure  in  earthen  vessels  ; "  they 
look  to  me,  indeed,  like  vessels  which  never  could 
have  been  fashioned  on  a  potter's  wheel,  had  not  the 
spirit  of  God  been  in  the  wheel ;  but,  supposing  it  were 
not  so,  our  concern  is  not  with  the  vessels,  but  with 
their  contents.  I  grant  that  the  vessels  —  whatever 
of  the  divine  handwork  may  or  may  not  be  discover- 
able in  them  —  are  by  no  means  masterworks  in  their 
human  aspect,  and,  especially,  that  the  Gospels  are 
singularly  unelaborate.  I  rejoice  that  this  is  the  case. 
If  the  life  and  teachings  of  Jesus  had  been  transmit- 
ted to  us  in  such  an  artistical  form  as  would  elude  all 
cavil,  their  very  perfectness  would  prove  that  these 
records  were  not  written  by  the  peasants  and  fisher- 
men whose  names  they  bear,  but  that  they  were  con- 
cocted at  some  later  day  when  there  were  in  the 
Church  learned  men  and  practised  writers.  That  the 
wonderful  story  is  told  with  precisely  such  omissions, 
repetitions,  inadvertencies,  and  discrepancies,  as  igno- 
rant men  and  unskilled  writers  could  not  avoid,  is  to 
every  candid  inquirer  among  the  foremost  tokens  of 
its  genuineness,  and  guarantees  for  its  authenticity. 
It  is  Christianity  thus  defined  and  limited  —  the 
Christianity  contained  in,  identical  with,  the  historical 
Christ,  and  this  alone  —  that  I  shall,  in  the  present 
course  of  lectures,  attempt  to  verify  as  pre-eminently 
worthy  of  belief  and  acceptance. 


DOGMAS  NOT  DISCUSSED.  7 

Before  I  go  farther,  permit  me  to  state  explicitly 
what  I  do  not  intend  to  do,  and  to  give  my  reasons 
for  thus  limiting  the  discussion. 

I  shall  omit,  as  far  as  possible,  all  reference  to  the 
dogmatic  contents  of  the  Christian  revelation.  I 
shall  exclude  them  from  consideration,  not  because 
I  occupy  with  regard  to  them  a  different  position 
from  those  by  whose  invitation  I  am  here ;  for  the 
same  catholic  spirit  which  gave  the  invitation  would, 
I  am  sure,  extend  itself  to  the  expression — were  it 
pertinent  —  of  any  opinions  of  mine  that  diverge  from 
theirs.  But,  while  I  do  not  deem  the  differences  of 
belief  among  Christians  unimportant,  all  questions  of 
interpretation  are  justly  thrown  into  the  background 
in  comparison  with  the  fundamental  question,  Have 
we  a  record  of  revelation  that  needs  and  craves  to  be 
interpreted  .'*  If  we  have  no  such  record,  then  we  are 
left,  in  the  battle  of  life  and  in  the  chances  of  the  un- 
known future,  to  stand  or  fall,  to  sink  or  swim,  as  we 
may :  we  owe  no  allegiance  ;  we  can  look  for  no  help 
or  quarter ;  our  own  right  arm  must  work  out  our 
salvation,  whatever  that  salvation  be  ;  our  only  alter- 
native is  defiance  or  despair.  But  if  from  the  parted 
heavens  a  voice  from  on  high  has  broken  the  eternal 
silence ;  if  "  the  mighty  God,  even  Jehovah,  hath 
spoken,  and  called  the  earth  from  the  rising  of  the 
sun  unto  the  going  down  thereof,"  —  then  are  we  no 
longer  orphans,  abandoned  to  our  miserable  self- 
help  ;  the  everlasting  arms  are  beneath  and  around 
us ;  there  is  room  for  faith,  submission,  religion  ; 
tht    union   of    the   human   spirit    with   the    divine, 

niTI7BRSITrl 


8  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

before  inconceivable,  becomes  possible.  In  fine, 
the  very  dispositions  of  mind  and  heart  implied  in 
accepting  a  revelation  —  the  abnegation  of  all  self- 
dependence,  and  the  felt  need  of  redemption  and  sal- 
vation from  God  alone  —  are  precisely  those  which 
the  contents  of  the  Christian  revelation  demand  and 
cherish.  These  are  the  two  poles  of  the.  religious  life, 
and  those  who  are  within  the  sphere  of  their  attraction 
must  of  necessity  differ  so  much  less  from  one  another 
than  from  their  unsphered  brethren  that  their  very 
differences  are  unity.  I  want,  then,  in  the  discussion 
before  us,  to  omit  these  differences  on  the  same  prin- 
ciple on  which  the  mathematician,  in  working  out  the 
equation  of  some  great  cosmical  law,  drops  remainders 
and  eliminates  factors  which  would  be  of  essential 
import  in  a  problem  of  more  limited  scope. 

In  the  next  place,  I  shall  take  no  note  of  specific 
theories  of  inspiration.  The  kind  and  degree  of 
inspiration  that  may  be  claimed  for  the  Bible  or  for 
portions  of  it  is  a  question  for  Christians  among 
themselves,  not  between  Christians  and  unbelievers  ; 
and  it  is  at  best  a  matter  of  secondary  moment.  The 
prime,  all-important  question  is  that  of  authority, 
trustworthiness,  infallibleness.  Have  we  a  record  of 
divine  truth  which  cannot  mislead  us  }  To  this  in- 
quiry we  have  an  affirmative  answer  when  we  hav6 
established  the  genuineness  of  the  Gospels  ;  for,  first, 
it  is  impossible  that,  if  the  Author  of  our  being  has 
revealed  the  way  of  salvation,  he  should  have  confined 
the  knowledge  of  that  way  to  the  contemporaries  of 
Christ,  and   left   all   coming  generations  to  records 


JUDAISM  NOT  UNDER   QUESTION.  9 

which  cannot  claim  their  confidence  ;  and,  secondly, 
if  the  gospel  narratives  are  genuine  and  true,  there 
must  have  been  in  the  apostolic  circle,  whence  the 
Gospels  emanated,  a  fulfilment  of  the  promise,  "  The 
Holy  Spirit  shall  teach  you  all  things,  and  bring  all 
things  to  your  remembrance,  whatsoever  I  have  said 
unto  you."  The  Bible,  from  Genesis  to  the  Apoca- 
lypse, is  all  along  ablaze  with  light  never  kindled  in 
our  lower  sphere.  But  it  is  the  best,  I  would  even 
say  the  only,  evidence  for  its  own  inspiration.  God's 
Spirit  in  the  soul  of  man  bears  unanswerable  testimony 
to  his  Spirit  in  the  written  Word.  Inspiration  is  there- 
fore to  be  discerned  and  felt,  rather  than  proved  ab 
extra ;  while  genuineness  and  authenticity  may  be 
proved  in  accordance  with  the  established  laws  of 
evidence. 

One  more  omission.  I  shall  say  little  or  nothing  of 
Judaism  and  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  seems  to  me  to 
have  been  a  very  damaging  error  in  the  defenders  of 
the  Christian  faith,  to  blend  Judaism  with  Christianity ; 
to  put  on  the  same  level  of  credibility  the  obscure 
traditions  of  the  earliest  ages  and  the  gospel  narratives 
with  their  transparent  simplicity  and  self -evidencing 
truthfulness  ;  to  make  the  reality  of  Christ's  mission 
from  heaven  depend  on  verifying  the  capacity  of 
Noah's  ark,  or  reconciling  the  genealogies  in  the 
Chronicles  with  the  various  passages  where  the  sev- 
eral names  occur.  I  have  no  fault  to  find  with  these 
learned  exercitations  on  the  Old  Testament.  There  is 
no  portion  of  the  records  of  remote  antiquity  so  well 
deserving  and  so  richly  rewarding  research.    I  believe 


lO  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

in  the  divine  mission  of  Moses,  in  the  divine  origin  of 
Judaism,  in  the  miracle  and  prophecy  which  attested 
and  attended  it.  But  Judaism  is  superseded.  It  is 
no  longer,  as  once,  the  avenue  to  the  Christian  Church. 
We  are  not  to  become  Jews,  in  order  to  become  Chris- 
tians. What  wonder  then  is  it,  that  Providence  should 
permit  here  and  there  a  broken  arch  or  a  tottering 
wall  in  those  once  appointed,  now  disused,  forecourts 
of  heaven  ?  That  the  evidence  for  Judaism  was,  in 
its  own  time,  as  clear  and  full  as  can  have  been  needed 
or  desired  I  cannot  doubt.  That  it  should  be  less 
obvious  and  attended  with  greater  difficulties  at  the 
present  day,  is  precisely  what  we  should  expect  to 
find,  if  its  age  has  passed  and  its  mission  has  termi- 
nated. Instead  of  coming  to  Christ  through  Moses, 
our  way  evidently  is  to  go  to  Moses  through  Christ. 
Independently  of  the  New  Testament,  I  see  in  the 
Old,  along  with  numerous  tokens'  of  divinity  which  I 
cannot  ignore  or  explain  away,  a  great  deal  which  I 
cannot  understand,  and  know  not  how  to  appreciate. 
But  Christ's  full  and  emphatic  recognition  of  Moses 
and  the  prophets  constrains  my  own.  My  belief  hangs 
on  his  knowledge.  My  ground,  then,  is  that  the  evi- 
dences of  Christianity  carry  Judaism  along  with  Chris- 
tianity ;  while  Judaism,  being  so  much  more  ancient, 
obscure,  and  open  to  cavil  than  Christianity,  cannot 
essentially  subsidize  the  Christian  evidences.  It  must 
be  remembered  that  the  strength  of  a  chain  of  evidence 
is  precisely  that  of  its  weakest  link  ;  and  so  far  as  v/e 
put  in  the  same  category,  and  attempt  to  prove  by  the 
same  line  of  argument,  the  swimming  of  the  prophet's 


GROUNDS  OF  EVIDENCE.  II 

axe  and  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  we  attach  to 
the  latter  event  whatever  of  suspicion  or  increduUty 
may  cHng  to  the  former.  While  I  can  admit  both  as 
credible,  I  can  imagine  a  condition  of  mind  in  which 
the  former  would  seem  to  me  a  legend,  the  latter  a 
glorious  reality  ;  and  I  am  sure  that  our  course  of 
reasoning  with  regard  to  the  one  should  be  such  as 
should  not  clog  it  with  the  doubts  and  misgivings  that 
might  innocently  exist  as  to  the  other.  Concentrate 
your  forces  in  the  citadel,  and  from  it  you  can  defend 
the  outworks.  Divide  and  scatter  your  forces  through 
a  long  array  of  antiquated  and  half-dismantled  out- 
works, both  outworks  and  citadel  will  suffer  detriment 
from  your  feeble  defence. 

So  much  as  this  it  was  necessary  to  say,  in  order 
that  my  omissions  may  be  charged,  not  to  my  own 
lack  of  faith,  but  to  my  proposed  course  of  argument. 

The  proposition  which  I  hope  to  maintain  is,  that 
science  and  Christianity,  as  I  have  defined  them,  so 
far  from  being  mutually  hostile,  and  from  excluding  and 
negativing  each  the  other,  in  fact  rest  upon  the  same 
foundation,  and  must  stand  or  fall  together.  They 
appeal  to  precisely  the  same  sorts  of  evidence,  and 
there  is  no  principle  on  which  these  can  be  admitted  in 
behalf  of  science,  and  set  aside  in  the  case  of  Christi- 
anity. Science  and  Christianity  have,  in  common, 
three  sources  of  proof  or  evidence,  —  testimony,  ex- 
periment (or  experience),  and  intuition.  We  will  con- 
sider these  successively ;  though  the  first  of  the  three, 
as  demanding  more  detail  of  statement,  will  occupy 
the  greater  part  of  the  course. 


12  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Under  the  head  of  testimony,  it  is  incumbent  on  us 
to  show  that  human  testimony  is  as  essential  to  the 
establishment  of  scientific  truth  as  to  the  verification 
of  Christianity,  and  that  the  testimony  in  behalf  of 
Christianity  is  not  inferior  in  completeness  and  credi- 
bility to  that  which  underlies  the  truths  of  science. 

Scientific  truth  rests  wholly  on  a  basis  of  transmit- 
ted and  accumulated  testimony.  In  no  department 
has  any  one  man,  or  have  the  men  of  any  one  gene- 
ration, gone  over  the  w^hole  ground  ;  but  observed 
facts  have  been  collected  from  various  and  distant 
localities,  and  freshly  observed  facts  have  been  col- 
lated with  those  that  have  come  down  from  former 
times,  and  often  from  a  very  remote  antiquity.  Thus, 
in  establishing  the  relations  and  the  laws  of  the 
heavenly  bodies,  not  only  have  astronomers  in  every 
zone  contributed  their  observations  ;  but  these  have 
been  compared  with  data  derived  in  some  instances 
from  sources  reaching  back  thousands  of  years.  In- 
deed, there  are  some  secular  variations  in  planetary  and 
stellar  motion,  infinitesimal  in  amount,  yet  of  prime 
importance  in  theory,  which  cannot  be  verified  with- 
out resort  to  the  testimony  of  Hipparchus  and  other 
astronomers  who  flourished  long  before  the  Christian 
era.  In  geology,  explorations  have  been  made  all  the 
world  over,  and  very  important  conclusions  have  often 
been  drawn  from  or  modified  by  the  testimony  of  a 
single  witness,  —  the  journal  of  a  first  explorer  of  a 
previously  unknown  region.  Moreover,  as  regards 
gradual  changes  on  the  earth's  surface,  the  altera- 
tions of  coast-lines,  local  elevations  and  depressions, 


HISTORICAL  BASIS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  1 3 

traces  of  volcanic  agency,  testimony  from  the  very 
birth  of  history  to  the  present  time  has  been  sought, 
received  as  authentic,  and  built  upon  as  furnishing  a 
solid  ground  for  scientific  inferences  of  the  most  com- 
prehensive character.  Nor  have  the  acknowledged 
misapprehensions,  errors,  and  puerile  theories  of  the. 
ancient  writers  been  regarded  as  invalidating  their 
testimony  as  to  facts  that  came  properly  within  the 
sphere  of  their  knowledge.  Herodotus  was  grossly 
credulous  ;  Aristotle  and  Pliny  maintained  the  most 
absurd  opinions  about  the  natural  objects  and  phe- 
nomena that  they  describe  :  yet  no  one  doubts  their 
trustworthiness  as  to  what  they  had  themselves  wit- 
nessed, or  had  received  from  witnesses  worthy  of 
credit.  I  am  especially  impressed  by  the  intense 
stress  which  the  advocates  of  the  development-theory 
lay  on  even  obscure  and  second-hand  testimony,  on 
the  mere  rumor  of  the  creation  of  acari  by  artificial 
heat,  or  of  some  anticipative  dawning  of  human  intel- 
ligence or  sensibility  in  dog  or  ape,  bee  or  beaver.  In 
fine,  what  now  calls  itself  natural  science  a  quarter  of 
a  century  ago  did  not  aspire  to  that  name,  but  was 
merely  natural  history ;  and  now,  so  far  as  it  is 
science,  it  rests  wholly  on  natural  history,  much  of 
it  very  ancient  history  ;  but  natural  history,  like  all 
other  history,  is  nothing  else  than  human  testimony. 
Christianity,  equally  with  science,  has  an  historical 
basis,  and  thus  far  depends  on  testimony.  It  has  its 
historical  records,  to  which  it  appeals  for  the  life  and 
the  teachings  of  its  Founder.  There  has  been  of  late, 
in  the  theological  world,  almost  a  mania  for  discredit- 


14  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

ing  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  these  records, 
just  as  a  generation  earlier  it  was  the  fashion  among 
classical  scholars  to  deny  the  authorship  of  the  Iliad 
by  Homer,  or  by  any  one  man  or  generation,  and  as 
there  has  appeared  more  recently  in  some  quarters  a 
tendency — not  without  a  plausible  show  of  argument 
—  to  maintain  that  Shakespeare  did  not  write  the 
plays  called  his.  Meanwhile,  the  really  great  biblical 
scholars  —  such  men  as  Tischendorf,  who  has  no  pie- 
tistic  prejudices  to  warp  his  critical  judgment  —  have 
seen  no  cause  to  change  their  belief  in  the  genuine- 
ness of  these  writings.  As  for  Strauss,  he  may  be 
fairly  set  aside  as  of  no  authority  as  to  a  question  of 
fact  ;  for  he  expressly  admits  that  he  shapes  his 
chronology  to  suit  his  theories  ;  and,  during  his  last 
ten  years,  he  changed  his  chronological  base  more 
than  half  a  century,  solely  because  he  found  that  the 
dates  which,  on  documentary  evidence,  he  had  as- 
signed to  the  composition  of  the  Gospels  in  the  earlier 
editions  of  his  "  Life  of  Jesus  "  were  utterly  incom- 
patible with  his  mythical  hypothesis.  Renan's  "  Life 
of  Jesus,  "on  the  other  hand,  manifests  no  more  note- 
worthy trait  than  the  author's  proclivity  to  give  to  and 
claim  for  the  authenticity  of  the  Gospels  the  fullest 
credit,  wherever  their  narratives  come  within  the  limits 
which  he,  in  his  assumed  omniscience,  knows  that  the 
divine  Providence  can  never  have  transcended. 

Our  first  inquiry  under  the  head  of  testimony  must 
be  as  to  the  genuineness  of  these  Gospels  ;  that  is,  their 
authorship  by  the  men  whose  names  they  bear.  The 
inquiry  embraces  many  considerations  that  apply  to 


ANTIQUITY  OF  THE   GOSPELS.  15 

the  four  Gospels  ;  some  which  are  peculiar  to  the  first 
three  ;  some  which  belong  to  the  fourth  Gospel  only, 
the  genuineness  and  remote  antiquity  of  which  are 
denied  by  not  a  few  critics  who  admit  that  the  other 
three  were  written  in  the  apostolic  times  and  by  their 
reputed  authors.  With  reference  to  the  Gospels,  col- 
lectively and  individually,  the  stress  of  the  question 
rests  mainly  on  their  antiquity  ;  for,  if  we  can  trace 
them  back  to  the  lifetime  of  the  men  whose  names 
are  attached  to  them,  it  can  hardly  be  maintained 
that  they  are  either  of  spurious  origin  or  of  gradual 
growth. 

In  behalf  of  the  antiquity  of  these  books,  the  most 
conclusive  argument  is  that  furnished  by  the  quota- 
tions from  them  and  the  coincidences  with  them  in 
the  writings  of  the  early  Christians.  To  appreciate 
this  argument,  let  us  take  a  closely  parallel  case. 
Suppose  that  of  the  many  narratives  of  our  late  civil 
war  that  have  been  or  will  be  written,  there  are  four, 
and  but  four,  by  men  personally  conversant  with  the 
whole  series  of  events,  and  worthy  of  being  regarded 
as  of  conclusive  authority,  —  we  will  say  by  A,  B,  C, 
and  D,  —  and  that  these  four  will  become  the  great 
historical  monuments  of  this  era  of  our  history.  What 
will  take  place  as  to  quotations  from  these  books  ? 
In  the  lifetime  of  the  present  generation  they  will 
not  be  quoted  or  referred  to  by  name  ;  for  the  events 
they  record  will  be  so  recent,  that  all  who  make  men- 
tion of  them  will  write  from  their  own  memory,  or 
from  such  memoranda  or  fugitive  documents  as  they 
may  have  on  hand.     There  will  thus  be  coincidence 


1 6  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

with  these  authorities,  but  no  quotation.  In  the  next 
generation  they  will  bs  quoted,  but  seldom  and  infor- 
mally :  for  the  men  of  that  generation  will  have  talked 
with  the  actors  in  the  events  described  ;  there  will 
remain  a  multitude  of  floating  traditions  and  loose 
documents,  and  many  of  the  events  will  still  be  too 
familiarly  known  to  need  the  citation  of  authorities ; 
while,  the  want  of  a  standard  history  being  not  yet 
felt,  those  four  histories,  though  known  to  be  authentic, 
will  not  have  assumed  in  the  public  esteem  the  para- 
mount distinction  as  standard  works  which  will  after- 
ward be  accorded  to  them.  There  will,  therefore,  be 
in  the  writings  of  this  next  generation  coincidence 
with  our  supposed  histories,  but  few  quotations  from 
them  and  very  scanty  reference  to  them.  But,  with 
every  successive  year  after  the  second  generation 
shall  have  passed  away,  miscellaneous  sources  of  in- 
formation will  fail  ;  narratives  of  secondary  value 
will  disappear ;  these  four  histories  will  be  more 
and  more  relied  on  as  of  sole  authority ;  the  quota- 
tions from  them  will  grow  more  and  more  frequent, 
till  at  length  they  are  appealed  to  by  name  when- 
ever any  subject  of  which  they  treat  is  recalled. 
Now  suppose  that,  two  thousand  years  hence,  there 
will  be  historical  sceptics  who  will  say,  "  No,  these 
books  cannot  have  been  the  original  works  of  A,  B, 
C,  and  D,  who,  as  we  know,  were  contemporary  with 
the  events  recorded  in  them.  They  must  have  been 
compiled  a  century  or  two  later."  Suppose  that  sound 
and  reasonable  critics  take  up  the  theme  of  inquiry 
thus  started,  what  aspect  will  the  mass  of  quotations 


EVIDENCE  FROM  QUOTATION.  1 7 

from  these  histories  bear  ?  They  will  appear  in  the 
form  of  a  pyramid,  with  a  very  broad  base  in  the  later 
ages,  but  always  diminishing  from  century  to  century, 
growing  very  slender  toward  the  middle,  and  tapering 
to  its  apex  in  the  earlier  half,  of  the  twentieth  century  ; 
beyond  which  there  will  be  numerous  close  coinci- 
dences, but  perhaps  not  a  single  quotation.  The  candid 
critic  of  the  thirty-ninth  century  will  then  say,  "  There 
cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt  that  A,  B,  C,  and  D,  who 
are  known  to  have  flourished  in  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  wrote  these  books.  Had  they  been 
later  works,  or  by  other  hands,  they  could  not  have 
been  quoted  as  they  were  in  the  twentieth  and  twenty- 
first  centuries.  The  quotations  from  them  by  name 
begin  too  early  to  leave  any  doubt  as  to  their  author- 
ship. It  is  impossible  that  their  real  character  as 
genuine  compositions  or  otherwise  should  not  have 
been  known  in  the  twentieth  century  ;  and,  if  they 
had  been  even  doubted,  they  would  have  been  quoted 
as  probably,  or  as  supposed  to  be,  or  as  pretending  to 
be,  the  writings  of  A,  B,  C,  and  D,  not  as  actually  their 
writings." 

This  precisely  represents  the  case  of  the  Gospels. 
The  quotations  from  them  form  such  a  pyramid  as  I 
have  described.  After  the  first  two  or  three  centuries, 
we  find  them  expressly  quoted,  and  generally  by  name, 
whenever  the  events  they  record  are  referred  to.  As 
we  go  farther  back  toward  the  first  century,  we  find 
them  still  quoted  by  name,  but  less  and  less  frequently, 
till  we  come  to  writers  that  were  contemporary  with 
the  Apostles,  though  their  juniors,  and  they  refer  con- 


1 8  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

tinually  to  the  events  described  in  the  Gospels,  some- 
times in  almost  the  very  words  of  the  evangelists, 
yet  without  citing  them  by  name.  This  aspect  of  the 
Christian  writings  can  be  accounted  for  only  by  sup- 
posing the  Gospels  to  have  been  written  by  the  apostles 
and  apostolic  men  whose  names  they  bear.  Had  they 
been  later,  or  forged,  or  mere  compilations,  they  could 
not  have  been  so  early  quoted  as  of  undoubted  author- 
ity. They  could  not,  if  on  any  score  doubtful,  have 
come  into  general  use  among  Christians  without  dis- 
putes as  to  their  origin  ;  and  these  disputes  would  have 
left  ineffaceable  traces  of  themselves  in  the  early 
Christian  literature. 

There  is  yet  another  consideration  which  may  deter- 
mine, not  only  the  age  of  the  Gospels,  but  the  kind  of 
men  to  which  their  authors  must  have  belonged.  The 
Gospels  are  written  in  Hellenistic  Greek,  —  a  dialect 
created  by  the  transfusion  of  Hebrew  idioms  into 
Greek  forms.  There  is  hardly  a  sentence  that  does 
not  betray  the  Hebrew  origin  and  culture  of  the  evan- 
gelists, who  must  needs  have  been  born  Jews.  But 
it  is  universally  admitted  that  in  the  middle  of  the 
second  century  these  books  were  received  throughout 
the  Christian  Church  as  of  paramount  authority  with 
reference  to  the  life  and  teachings  of  Christ.  Yet, 
even  in  the  lifetime  of  the  apostles,  feuds,  not  des- 
tined to  be  reconciled,  broke  out  between  the  Jewish 
and  Gentile  Christians  ;  and  before  the  end  of  the  first 
century  there  seems  to  have  been  between  these  por- 
tions of  the  Church  an  entire  separation  and  a  bitter 
enmity.    It  is  absolutely  certain  that,  at  a  later  period 


FREEDOM  FROM  ANACHRONISMS. 


19 


than  this,  neither  party  would  have  received  sacred 
books  from  the  other  as  unquestionable  and  authori 
tative.  Had  the  Gospels  been  written  by  post-apostolic 
Jews,  they  would  have  been  either  rejected  by  the 
Gentile  churches,  or  received  by  them  with  marked 
suspicion  and  reserve.  Of  Jewish  Christians,  only  the 
apostles  and  their  coevals  were  recognized  by  Gentile 
converts  as  worthy  of  their  entire  confidence  and  fel- 
lowship. From  this  apostolic  fraternity,  then,  the 
Gospels  received  by  the  Gentiles  must  have  been 
derived. 

We  have  another  proof  that  these  books  were  writ- 
ten by  men  who  were  contemporary  with  Jesus  Christ, 
or  who  at  least  were  conversant  with  Palestine  before 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  in  their  freedom  from 
anachronisms,  and  from  mistakes  as  to  persons  and 
places.  The  Gospels  are,  as  you  know,  full  of  desig- 
nations of  time  and  names  of  places,  and  that,  during 
an  eventful  period  of  Jewish  history,  when  important 
political  changes  were  continually  occurring,  when  the 
tributary  monarch  of  one  year  was  likely  to  be  the 
proscribed  exile  of  the  next,  when  even  the  names 
and  boundaries  of  political  divisions  were  undergoing 
frequent  alterations.  Of  this  whole  period  we  have  a 
detailed  history  by  the  Jew  Josephus  ;  and  we  find  no 
discrepancy  between  his  narrative  and  the  circum- 
stantial references  in  the  Gospels.  This  negative 
fact  has  a  positive  bearing  of  the  highest  signifi- 
cance. A  writer  who  undertakes  local  details  in  a 
field  with  which  he  has  had  no  personal  acquaintance, 
never  fails  to  betray  his  ignorance.     Even  elaborate 


20  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

histories  —  on  sure  ground  while  describing  the 
march  of  grand  events  —  when  they  undertake  to 
portray  scenes  on  a  contracted  theatre,  always  con- 
trive to  misplace  some  of  the  actors  or  the  incidents  ; 
and  conscientious  historians,  aware  of  this  liability, 
have  often  prepared  themselves  for  their  task  by  mi- 
nute personal  investigation.  There  are  also  not  a 
few  fictitious  works  —  novels,  tales,  series  of  letters 
—  which  have  been  written  expressly  as  imitations 
of  antiquity,  in  which  by  an  antique  style,  and  by 
carefully  framed  references  to  well-known  historical 
personages,  places,  and  events,  it  has  been  designed 
to  maintain  the  illusion  undisturbed  in  the  reader's 
mind.  Some  of  these  books,  like  Barthelemy's 
"  Travels  of  Anacharsis "  and  the  English  "  Athe- 
nian Letters,"  have  been  written  by  men  of  pre-emi- 
nent classical  scholarship.  Yet  you  can  find  no  work 
of  this  kind  in  which  the  writer  does  not  sometimes 
blunder  or  forget  himself,  fall  into  an  anachronism, 
or  insert  some  incident  out  of  place.  Josephus  knew 
the  whole  ground  thoroughly,  as  no  one  could  by  any 
possibility  have  known  it  after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem. 
Had  not  the  writers  of  the  Gospels  possessed  the  same 
conversance  with  Palestine  while  Jerusalem  was  still 
standing,  it  is  a  literary  impossibility  that,  even  with 
the  history  of  Josephus  in  their  hands,  they  should 
not  have  left  traces  of  their  ignorance  of  the  country, 
which  lynx-eyed  criticism  would  long  ago  have  de- 
tected and  laid  bare.  The  minute  and  manifold  coin- 
cidences with  history,  as  illustrated  and  confirmed  by 
modern    research,  show  that   the  evangelists  in   de- 


COINCIDENCES   WITH  HISTORY.  21 

scribing  transactions  and  events  in  Palestine  were  on 
their  own  ground  ;  that  is,  must  have  been  Jews  in 
Palestine  before  a.d.  70. 

In  addition  to  this  absence  of  discrepancies,  it 
would  be  easy  to  trace  not  a  few  latent  and  mani- 
festly undesigned  coincidences  between  the  Gospels 
and  exterior  history.  One  must  suffice.  The  word 
constantly  employed  by  the  evangelists,  and  in  the  New 
Testament  generally,  to  denote  a  soldier,  is  a  noun 
which  may  signify  a  man  under  military  orders,  whether 
in  active  service  or  not.*  Once  only  occurs  the  parti- 
ciple used  to  designate  not  merely  sol^^ers,  but  soldiers 
in  active  service.f  This  is  in  Luke's  Gospel,  where  he 
speaks  of  the  soldiers  that  resorted  to  the  preaching 
of  John  the  Baptist.  It  is  a  common  belief  that  the 
period  of  the  Saviour's  lifetime  was  an  era  of  universal 
peace.  Moreover,  that  desert  region  on  the  banks  of 
the  Jordan  was  not  a  place  where  soldiers  on  garrison 
duty,  or  belonging  to  a  peace  establishment,  were  likely 
to  be  found.  Thus  the  presence  of  persons  who  could 
be  designated  by  the  noun  referred  to  was  improbable, 
much  more  that  of  soldiers  on  actual  mihtary  duty,  to 
whom  the  participle  evidently  points.  But  we  learn 
from  Josephus  that  there  may  have  been  soldiers  in 
active  service  passing  down  the  valley  of  the  Jordan 
at  that  very  time.  It  must  have  been  about  this  time 
that  Herod  Antipas,  of  Galilee,  repudiated  his  wife, 
the  daughter  of  Aretas,  a  petty  Arabian  king,  in  order 
to  marry  Herodias,  to  whose  hatred  John  fell  a  victim. 
There  had   been   previously   hostile  passages  about 

*  2rpano;r7f.  t  I^TpaTevofiEvoc. 


22  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

boundaries  between  Herod  and  his  father-in-law. 
Herod  sent  against  Aretas  a  small  army,  which  was 
betrayed  and  destroyed.  This  catastrophe,  it  seems 
most  probable,  took  place  a  year  or  two  later,  after  the 
death  of  John  the  Baptist ;  but  a  desultory  warfare  had 
then  been  going  on  for  some  length  of  time  between 
Herod  and  Aretas,  and  any  military  expedition  of 
Herod  against  his  father-in-law  would  have  taken 
John's  preaching-ground  on  its  way.* 

The  proofs  that  I  have  adduced  are  conclusive 
in  behalf  of  the  authorship  of  the  Gospels  in  the 
age  when  they  purport  to  have  been  written,  and  by 
men  belonging,  if  I  may  so  speak,  to  the  apostolic 
circle ;  no  mean  witnesses,  as  regards  their  credibility, 
even  if  they  were  other  than  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke, 
and  John. 

One  word  only  in  conclusion.  In  my  reasoning 
thus  far  —  and  I  shall  endeavor  to  adhere  to  the 
same  rule  through  my  whole  course  —  I  have  taken 
and  claimed  no  advantage  for  the  Gospels  because 
they  are  sacred  books,  and  seem  to  me  of  vital  im- 
portance. I  have  reasoned  as  I  would  about  books 
of  contested  origin  that  had  come  down  to  us  from 
the  ancient  times  of  Athens  or  of  Rome.  I  think 
that  I  have,  and  I  shall  endeavor  to  give  you,  as 
good  reasons  for  my  belief  in  the  genuineness  of  the 
Gospels  as  I  have  for  that  of  Plutarch's  Lives  or  of 
Virgil's  iEneid. 

*  See  Appendix,  note  A. 


LECTURE   II. 

GENUINENESS  OF  THE  GOSPELS.  —  TESTIMONY  OF  CHRISTIAN 
FATHERS.  —  OF  HERETICS.  —  OF  ENEMIES.  —  RULES  OF 
EVIDENCE.  —  AUTHENTICITY  OF  THE  GOSPELS.  —  THEIR 
AUTHORS  COMPETENT  WITNESSES.  —  THE  GOSPELS  COM- 
PLEMENTING   AND    INTERPRETING    ONE    ANOTHER. 

TN  my  last  Lecture  I  sought  to  prove  the  antiquity  of 
-*•  the  Gospels.  I  showed  you  that  we  have  reason 
to  believe  that  they  could  not  have  been  written  later 
than  the  apostolic  age ;  that  is,  that  they  are  undoubt- 
edly works  of  the  first  Christian  century.  We  will  now 
consider  the  proof  that  they  were  written  by  the  men 
whose  names  they  bear. 

The  first  question  that  suggests  itself  is,  Why 
should  we  not  believe  that  the  Gospels  were  written 
by  these  men .?  We  have  precisely  the  same  reason 
for  so  believing  that  we  have  for  our  belief  in  author- 
ship generally.  When  we  find  an  authors  name 
attached  to  a  book  with  the  earliest  mention  of  it,  and 
that  name  remains  so  attached  from  generation  to 
generation  without  its  rightful  use  being  once  called 
in  question,  the  probability  is  little  less  than  certainty 
that  the  name  properly  belongs  to  it.  Thus,  although 
there  is  no  quotation  or  mention  of  the  "  Theogony  " 
or  of  the  "  Works  and  Days  "  until  some  four  hundred 
years  from  the  time  when  they  were  written,  because 


24  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

when  mention  of  them  is  first  found  they  are  spoken 
of  as  Hesiod's,  and  no  doubt  is  expressed  as  to  their 
authorship  in  the  age  when  such  reasons  for  doubt  as 
there  might  have  been  could  not  have  grown  obso- 
lete, classical  scholars  have  consented  to  call  them 
Hesiod's,  with  a  unanimity  broken  only  by  certain 
extremists  of  that  class  of  critics  whose  fundamental 
canon  is  that  "  things  are  not  what  they  seem."  The 
Histories  of  Herodotus  and  Thucydides  are  known  to 
be  theirs  only  on  this  ground  ;  and  the  case  is  the 
same  with  most  books,  modern  no  less  than  ancient. 
We  have  no  detailed  account  ol  their  inception,  writ- 
ing, and  publication.  All  that  we  know  is,  that  a  certain 
book  appeared  under  a  certain  name,  and  that  no  one 
ever  gainsaid  that  name,  or  suggested  that  another 
name  ought  to  have  taken  its  place.  Now,  these  four 
Gospels  of  ours  are  called  the  Gospels  of  Matthew, 
Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  as  early  as  we  can  find  any 
traces  of  their  existence  :  they  were  never  called  by 
the  names  of  any  other  men  ;  nor,  so  far  as  I  know, 
till  the  last  century,  did  any  one  ever  deny  or  doubt 
that  they  were  written  by  these  men. 

But  we  are  not  left  to  this  general  consideration. 
We  can,  with  entire  distinctness  and  confidence,  trace 
the  very  four  Gospels  that  we  now  have  as  not  only 
in  existence,  but  universally  received  in  the  Church, 
under  the  names  which  they  now  bear,  at  a  period  so 
early  that  a  false  theory  as  to  their  origin  could  not 
by  any  possibility  have  obtained  undisputed  currency. 
In  this  line  of  argument  I  need  but  two  names.  There 
is,  indeed,  a  cloud  of  witnesses  that  might  be  adduced ; 


TESTIMONY  OF  ORIGEN.  25 

and  the  Christian  apologist  finds  his  only  embarrass- 
ment, not  that  of  penury,  but  that  of  superabundant 
wealth.  The  voluminous  testimony  of  the  first  four 
centuries  is  invaluable  :  there  is  ready  access  to  it  in 
Lardner's  great  work  and  in  other  less  complete  col- 
lections ;  but  there  is  no  subject  to  which  we  might 
apply  with  more  literal  truth  than  to  this  the  scrip- 
tural saying,  "  Out  of  the  mouth  of  two  or  three  wit- 
nesses the  whole  matter  shall  be  established." 

My  chief  witnesses  are  Origen  and  Irenaeus.  Ori- 
gen  was  born  about  a.d.  185,  and  was  known  as  a 
scholar  and  a  writer  till  after  the  middle  of  the  third 
century.  He  was,  perhaps,  the  most  learned  man  of 
his  time,  and  realized  more  fully  than  any  other  person 
in  classic  or  Christian  antiquity  the  idea  which  we 
attach  to  the  designation  of  a  critical  scholar.  He 
prepared  with  great  skill  and  care  what  would  now  be 
called  a  critical  edition  of  the  Septuagint,  collated  with 
other  Greek  versions  of  the  Old  Testament.  He  was 
a  zealous  collector  of  manuscripts,  having  by  his 
spiritual  services  secured  for  his  literary  pursuits 
the  affluent  aid  of  a  man  of  large  wealth.  He,  in 
his  various  books,  quotes  from  our  present  Gospels 
so  copiously  that,  were  they  lost,  we  could  almost 
replace  them  from  his  quotations.  He  describes  the 
four  Gospels,  and  names  their  authors,  giving  the  order 
of  their  composition  precisely  as  they  are  arranged  in 
our  present  Bible.  He  speaks  of  them  as  "  the  ele- 
ments of  the  faith  of  the  Church  ; "  again,  as  "  not  rare 
books,  read  only  by  a  few  studious  persons,  but  in  the 
most  common  use  ; "  still  farther,  as  "  received  with- 

2 


26  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

out  controversy  ;  "  and  yet  once  more,  as  "  believed  by 
all  the  churches  of  God."  He  was  in  the  habit  of  com- 
paring different  copies  of  the  Gospels,  and  commenting 
on  the  various  readings  which  he  found,  which  are  in 
every  instance  identical  with  or  similar  to  the  various 
readings  to  be  collected  from  now  existing  manu- 
scripts. There  is  not  the  faintest  indication  that  the 
Gospels  which  Origen  used  contained  any  thing  that 
is  not  in  our  present  Gospels  ;  while  the  great  number 
and  variety  of  his  quotations  from  them,  his  comments 
on  their  phraseology,  his  frequent  analysis  and  exposi- 
tion of  single  texts  from  them  word  by  word,  and  his 
repeated  mention  of  the  various  readings,  render  it 
absolutely  certain  that  he  had  in  his  hands  our  present 
four  Gospels  substantially  as  they  are  now.  As  Origen 
was  of  Christian  parentage,  of  liberal  education,  and  a 
public  teacher  of  religion  from  the  age  of  seventeen, 
his  testimony  must  of  necessity  cover  the  whole  period 
embraced  within  his  personal  memory.  The  Gospels 
must  have  been  regarded  in  his  youth  and  childhood 
as  he  regarded  them  ;  else,  whatever  his  own  opinion 
of  them,  he  could  not  have  spoken  of  them  as  uni- 
versally received  without  controversy. 

Irenaeus  died  about  the  time  of  Origen's  entrance 
on  public  life.  He  was  contemporary  with  Clement 
of  Alexandria,  who  was  Origen's  teacher.  He  thus 
represents  the  generation  from  which  Origen  derived 
his  knowledge  of  the  Gospels  and  his  reverence  for 
them.  He  was  a  man  of  no  little  learning,  very  ex- 
tensive travel,  and  high  official  standing.  He  is 
spoken  of  by  TertuUian  as  "  a  diligent  inquirer  into 


TESTIMONY  OF  IRENJEUS.  27 

all  sorts  of  opinions."  He  was  a  native  of  Asia  Minor, 
was  for  many  years  a  bishop  in  Gaul,  and  had  numer- 
ous correspondents  in  all  parts  of  the  world  in  which 
Christianity  had  gained  a  foothold.  He,  beyond  a 
doubt,  had  received  the  very  same  traditions  about 
the  Gospels  that  were  transmitted  to  Origen,  and  it 
is  certain  that  he  had  in  his  possession  precisely  the 
same  Gospels.  He  writes,  "  We  have  not  received 
the  knowledge  of  the  way  of  salvation  by  any  others 
than  those  by  whom  the  Gospel  has  come  down  to 
us  ;  which  Gospel  they  first  preached,  and  afterward, 
by  the  will  of  God,  committed  to  writing  that  it  might 
be  the  foundation  and  pillar  of  our  faith."  He  then 
goes  on  to  describe  the  four  Gospels,  the  circumstances 
of  their  composition,  and  the  precise  view  with  which 
each  was  written.  He  cites  the  opening  sentences  of 
each  of  the  four,  which  correspond  verbally  with  the 
first  sentences  of  our  Gospels.  He  quotes  frequently 
from  the  Gospels,  and  the  passages  quoted  are  in  every 
instance  to  be  found  in  our  Gospels.  He  gives  a  de- 
tailed catalogue  of  the  contents  of  Luke's  Gospel,  dis- 
criminating those  portions  which  are  peculiar  to  Luke 
from  those  which  are  common  to  him  and  one  or  more 
of  the  other  evangelists.  There  cannot  be  the  slightest 
doubt  that  he  had  the  same  Gospels  that  we  have,  and 
that  he  believed  them  to  have  been  written  by  Matthew, 
Mark,  Luke,  and  John. 

Irenaeus  was  a  disciple  of  Polycarp,  who  had  been  a 
disciple  of  the  evangelist  John,  and  he  tells  of  Poly- 
carp's  relating  his  conversations  with  John  and  others 
who  had  been  with  Jesus,  and  of  his  repeating  what 


28      ^  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

he  had  heard  from  these  eye  and  ear  witnesses  about 
the  preaching  and  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  all  of  which, 
he  says,  Polycarp  described  "  in  accordance  with  what 
is  written,"  that  is,  in  the  Gospels.  Irenaeus  must  have 
been  born  a  little  before  the  death  of  John  the  evange- 
list. If  the  Gospels  were  of  post-apostolic  authorship, 
they  must  have  been  written  during  his  lifetime.  He 
was,  as  we  have  seen,  familiar  with  the  traditions  of 
the  apostolic  times ;  and  he  records  as  among  these 
traditions  the  names  of  the  authors  of  the  Gospels, 
the  circumstances  under  which  they  were  written, 
and  the  reasons  for  writing  each  of  them.  He  knew 
whether  Polycarp  had  these  books,  and  held  them  in 
veneration.  If  he  had  never  heard  of  them  from 
Polycarp,  it  would  not  have  been  possible  to  palm 
them  off  upon  him  as  apostolic  writings,  and  to  make 
him  believe  that  they  had  come  down  as  such  without 
Polycarp's  knowing  any  thing  about  them.  Strauss  (in 
his  "  Life  of  Jesus  for  the  German  People  ")  and  the 
Tubingen  critics  say  that  the  Gospel  of  John  could 
not  have  been  written  before  a.d.  150,  and  they  date 
those  of  Mark  and  Luke  but  about  fifteen  years  earlier. 
In  A.D.  150,  Irenaeus  cannot  have  been  much  less  than 
forty  years  of  age,  and  had  already  been  for  some  years 
a  preacher  of  Christianity  ;  yet,  according  to  these 
critics,  he  was  made  to  believe  that  brand-new  books, 
of  which  he  had  never  heard  from  his  teachers  or  from 
his  seniors  in  the  Christian  ministry,  were  really  writ- 
ten by  members  of  the  apostolic  company,  and  consti- 
tuted,, as  he  styles  them,  "  the  pillar  and  foundation  of 
the  Church  which  is  spread  over  all  the  earth."     It  is 


THE   CONTEMPORARIES  OF  IREN^US.  29 

perfectly  evident  that  books  of  which  Irenaeus  speaks 
so  confidently  could  not  have  been  written  in  his  time, 
but  must  have  been  regarded  by  his  venerable  teacher 
and  by  Christians  contemporary  with  him  in  the  same 
light  in  which  Irenaeus  himself  regarded  them. 

Let  us  review  the  several  stages  of  our  argument. 
Origen's  numerous  quotations  and  textual  criticisms 
enable  us  to  identify  the  Gospels  which  he  had  with 
our  own.  He  speaks  of  their  unquestioned  and  uni- 
versal reception  and  authority  in  his  time  as  writings 
of  the  apostolic  age.  That  reception  and  authority 
could  not  have  begun  to  be  in  his  lifetime ;  else  it 
could  not  have  been  universal  and  unquestioned. 
Irenaeus  belonged  to  the  generation  from  which 
Origen  must  have  derived  his  Christian  traditions. 
Irenaeus  gives  accounts  of  the  Gospels  coinciding 
point  for  point  with  those  of  Origen,  and  quotes 
from  them  so  copiously,  and  describes  them  so 
minutely,  as  to  make  it  certain  that  he  had  the  same 
Gospels.  Irenaeus  received  his  Christian  traditions 
from  those  who  had  been  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  apostles  and  their  friends,  and  who  could  not  have 
been  mistaken  as  to  the  books  purporting  to  have 
emanated  from  that  circle. 

I  might  close  my  argument  here ;  but  I  will  ask 
leave  to  dwell  a  little  longer  on  the  testimony  of 
Irenaeus,  in  connection  with  parallel  testimonies  of 
similar  bearing.  Contemporary  with  Irenaeus  in 
Gaul,  were  Theophilus  at  Antioch,  Tertullian  at 
Carthage,  and  Clement  at  Alexandria.  They  all 
quote,  as  from  the  Gospels,  passages  that  are  in  our 


30  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Gospels  ;  they  all  speak  of  the  Gospels  as  works  of 
the  apostolic  age  and  of  unquestioned  authority  ;  and 
Tertullian  and  Clement  give  descriptions  of  them  and 
of  the  circumstances  and  causes  of  their  authorship 
closely  resembling  those  of  Irenaeus.  The  first  re- 
mark to  be  made  on  their  testimony  is,  that  it  is  not 
theirs  alone.  They  were  representative  men,  official 
personages,  organs  of  Christian  communities.  They 
cite  and  describe  the  Gospels,  not  merely  as  histories 
which  they  receive,  but  as  books  approved  and  be- 
lieved, received  and  read,  by  all  Christian  men.  Their 
voice  is  that  of  the  whole  Church. 

In  the  next  place,  Irenaeus  and  his  contemporaries, 
by  their  testimony,  render  it  certain  that  these  Gospels 
were  generally  and  numerously  diffused  in  every  part 
of  the  Church  ;  that  is,  that  there  existed  many  thou- 
sand copies  of  them  :  and  their  quotations  are  suffi- 
ciently ample  and  various  to  show  that  they  had  not 
different  but  the  same  books  under  the  name  of 
Gospels  in  Gaul,  at  Antioch,  at  Carthage,  and  at 
Alexandria.  Books  were  then  multiplied  and  circu- 
lated with  a  slowness  of  which  it  is  now  hard  to  con- 
ceive. It  must  have  taken  a  longer  period  than  the 
lifetime  of  one  generation  to  give  these  books  the 
universal  currency  which  it  appears  that  they  had  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  second  century.  Suppose  them 
written  (as  Strauss  and  Baur  maintain  that  they  were) 
when  Ireneeus  was  a  young  man  in  Asia  Minor,  it  is 
utterly  impossible  that,  by  the  time  he  was  established 
as  a  bishop  in  the  heart  of  Gaul,  they  should  have 
obtained  such  a  circulation  and  prestige  in  every  part 


JUSTIN  MAR TYR.  3 1 

of  the  empire  as  to  make  him  forget  that  he  had  never 
seen  them  or  heard  of  them  in  his  youth,  and  imagine 
that  they  had  been  books  of  standard  authority  before 
he  was  born.  This  hypothesis  taenches  so  far  on 
the  miraculous  that  we  can  hardly  conceive  of  it  as 
tenable  in  quarters  where  miracles  are  repudiated 
with  scorn. 

Irenaeus  is  probably  the  earliest  author  who  ex- 
pressly mentions  the  four  Gospels,  and  formally 
quotes  from  either  of  them ;  and  this  corresponds 
to  what  we  should  expect  on  the  ground  stated  in 
my  last  lecture.  As  we  recede  nearer  the  apostolic 
age,  we  find  in  the  Christian  writers  coincidence 
without  formal  quotation.  There  is  one  of  these 
writers,  however,  who  forms,  as  it  were,  an  inter- 
mediate link  between  the  epoch  of  express  quotation 
and  that  of  non-quotation  ;  and  who  has  often  been 
adduced  as  a  virtual  witness  against  the  antiquity  and 
genuineness  of  the  Gospels.  I  refer  to  Justin  Martyr. 
It  is  urged  as  a  conclusive  argument  for  the  non- 
apostolic  and  late  origin  of  our  Gospels  that  he  does 
not  once  mention  them  ;  while  yet,  in  his  own  words 
and  way,  he  gives  almost  their  entire  contents, 
occasionally  referring  to  what  he  calls  "  Memoirs  by 
the  Apostles,"  *  and  in  one  place,  "  Memoirs  by  the 
Apostles,  which  are  called  Gospels."  f  It  is  alleged 
that  these  Memoirs  could  not  have  been  identical  with 
our  Gospels,  inasmuch  as  Justin  relates  some,  though 
very  few  sayings  of  Jesus  and  incidents  in  his  life, 

*  Ta  ' kiroiivrifiovevfiara  tuv  AtootoXuv. 
t  "A  Kakelrai  eiayyeAia. 


32  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

which  are  not  to  be  found  in  our  Gospels.*  As  for  his 
omission  of  the  names  of  the  evangeUsts,  it  must  be 
remembered  that  his  extant  writings  are  chiefly  apolo- 
getic, addressed  to^heathen  emperors,  and  designed  for 
heathen  readers,  to  whom  the  names  of  those  obscure 
Jewish  writers  would  have  been  a  matter  of  indiffer- 
ence. Then  too,  Justin,  though  not  many  years  earlier 
than  Irenaeus,  was  born  in  Samaria,  spent  a  large  part 
of  his  life  in  Palestine,  and  must  have  had  numerous 
sources  of  information  by  tradition  or  from  the  narra- 
tives of  survivors  of  the  apostolic  age,  entirely  inde- 
pendent of  the  written  Gospels,  which  then  held  by  no 
means  the  sole  and  undivided  place  as  repertories  of 
knowledge  about  Jesus  Christ  which  the  next  genera- 
tion assigned  to  them,  and  were  not  read  so  constantly, 
and  so  absorbed  word  by  word  into  the  memory,  as 
they  were  when  the  links  of  oral  tradition  became 
feeble  and  treacherous.  Justin  had,  no  doubt,  heard 
a  great  deal  more  about  Jesus  than  he  had  read.  He 
had  heard  many  of  those  things  which,  it  is  said  in 
the  sequel  to  the  fourth  Gospel,  were  too  numerous 
to  be  written  ;  and  a  few  of  them  —  probably  authen- 
tic ;  for  they  are  not  in  a  single  instance  inconsistent 
in  time,  place,  or  character  with  our  canonical  Gospels 
—  found  their  way  into  his  treatises.  He  writes,  as  it 
seems  to  me,  about  the  life  of  Christ  very  much  as  we 
should  write  about  our  late  civil  war  for  the  informa- 
tion of  foreign  and  unfriendly  readers.  We  should 
have  Abbot's,  Greeley's,  and  other  histories  at  hand, 
to  refresh  or  verify  our  recollection ;  and  we  should 

*  See  Appendix,  note  B. 


CRITICAL  SKILL   OF  THE  ANCIENTS.  33 

be  very  likely  to  mention  these  histories  collectively, 
"  As  we  read  in  the  histories  of  the  time  ; "  but  we 
should  hardly  name  them,  seldom  quote  them,  should, 
for  the  most  part,  tell  in  our  own  way  what  we  had 
seen  or  heard  at  the  time,  or  had  learned  afterward 
from  those  personally  concerned  in  the  events  nar- 
rated, and  should  undoubtedly  tell  some  things  that 
are  not  recorded  in  the  histories.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  it  is  our  four  Gospels  to  which  Justin  so  often 
refers  ;  but,  even  were  it  otherwise,  his  testimony  is 
none  the  less  valuable,  as  it  shows  that  there  were 
afloat  and  on  record,  in  the  generation  next  succeeding 
the  apostles,  the  same  accounts  of  Jesus  Christ  that 
are  contained  in  our  Gospels,  and  no  account  of  a 
different  style  or  tenor.* 

It  is  often  alleged,  in  answer  to  the  arguments  for 
the  genuineness  of  the  Gospels,  that  the  early  Chris- 
tian centuries  were  an  uncritical  age,  when  questions 
of  authorship  were  not  likely  to  be  discussed,  and 
when  a  false  name  might  have  easily  become  attached 
to  any  writing  without  protest  or  inquiry.  We  have, 
however,  ample  reason  for  the  opposite  opinion.  I  do 
not  remember,  indeed,  any  classic  writing  of  those 
times,  in  which  the  specific  question  of  the  genuine- 
ness of  a  book  is  discussed  ;  but  there  are  treatises 
of  Cicero  and  chapters  of  Quinctilian  which  are 
masterworks  of  critical  skill  and  acumen,  showing 
precisely  that  keen  curiosity  and  close  observation 
as  to  the  details,  conditions,  and  surroundings  of 
literary  composition,  which  constitute  the  art  of  the 
*  See  Appendix,  note  C. 

2» 


34  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

modern  critic.  Among  Christian  writers,  Origen  may 
be  fittingly  termed  an  eminently  discriminating  and 
skilful  critical  editor  of  the  Septuagint ;  while  his 
labors  on  the  New  Testament  show  a  careful  com- 
parison of  texts,  and  a  clear  recognition  of  the  canons 
by  which  decision  is  to  be  made  in  doubtful  cases. 
Then,  as  regards  the  special  question  of  authorship, 
we  have  in  a  well-known  passage  of  Eusebius,  in  the 
half-century  next  succeeding  that  in  which  Origen 
died,  proof  that  the  importance  of  the  inquiry  was 
fully  understood,  and  that  special  care  had  been 
bestowed  upon  its  answer.  Eusebius  was  a  man  of 
very  great  learning.  He  undertook  to  write  the 
history  of  the  Church  ;  and  prepared  himself  for  this 
work  by  extended  study,  travel,  and  correspondence, 
and  by  collecting,  at  great  expense,  from  every  portion 
of  the  empire  such  books  as  might  aid  him  in  his 
enterprise.  His  work  shows  manifest  tokens  of  the 
most  faithful  research  into  the  beginnings  and  early 
growth  of  Christianity,  and  a  diligent  and  judicious 
use  of  all  authorities  extant.  He  divides  the  books 
in  the  hands  of  Christians  into  three  classes,  —  those 
acknowledged  as  genuine,*  among  which  are  our  four 
Gospels  ;  books  disputed,!  though  well  known,  and 
approved  by  many,  among  which  are  included  most 
of  the  (so-called)  Catholic  Epistles  ;  and  those  which 
are  undoubtedly  spurious.  $  He  expresses  doubt 
whether  the  Apocalypse  belongs  to  the  first  or  the 
third  class ;  that  is,  whether  the  apostle  John's  name 

*  'OfioTuoyovfiivac  ■ypa(j>ai.  t  'AvnTieyouevai  ypa^, 

I  N6i?£u  ypcupat. 


GNOSTIC   TESTIMONY.  35 

had  been  truly  or  falsely  connected  with  it.  In  a 
subsequent  sentence,  he  speaks  of  some  books  as 
disputed,  notwithstanding  that  they  are  recognized 
by  most  ecclesiastical  writers.  What  could  demon- 
strate more  clearly  than  such  language  as  this,  that 
the  authorship  of  the  sacred  books  had  been  subjected 
to  searching  investigation,  and  that  these  Gospels  of 
ours,  as  contradistinguished  from  books  recognized  by 
most,  had  been  recognized  by  all  Christian  writers  ? 

Nor  let  it  be  imagined  that  Eusebius  was  ready  to 
accept  testimony  without  challenging  the  witnesses. 
I  know  of  hardl5^  a  finer  specimen  of  the  acute  and 
skilled  sifting  of  testimony  than  his  chapter  about 
Papias.  He,  in  the  first  place,  corrects  a  careless 
statement  of  Irenaeus  about  Papias.  Then,  speaking 
of  Papias  as  a  man  of  limited  understanding,  he  rejects 
certain  traditions  reported  by  him  from  unknown 
sources,  but  lays  emphatic  stress  on  such  as  he 
professed  to  have  received  directly  from  the  com- 
panions of  the  apostles.  From  this  same  Papias  he 
quotes  a  cursory  mention  of  Matthew's  and  Mark's 
Gospels,  and  a  statement  which  shows  what  I  have 
already  dwelt  upon,  that  books  like  the  Gospels,  how- 
ever genuine  and  authentic,  could  not  be  estimated 
at  thair  full  value,  so  long  as  oral  tradition  remained 
fresh  and  clear.  "  I  do  not  think,"  Papias  is  quoted 
as  saying,  "  that  I  derived  so  much  benefit  from  books 
as  from  the  living  voice  of  those  that  are  still  sur- 
viving." * 

I  have  thus  far  drawn  testimony  only  from  men  who 

*  See  Appendix,  note  D. 


36  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

were  in  the  direct  line  of  spiritual  descent  from  the  re- 
puted writers  of  the  Gospels  ;  and  though  they  had  the 
best  opportunities  of  knowing  that  of  which  they  testi- 
fied, it  may  be  said  that  their  subjective  faith,  which  may 
have  been  the  result  less  of  evidence  than  of  personal 
influence,  made  them  partial  witnesses  for  the  reputed 
records  of  their  faith.  The  same  cannot  be  said,  how- 
ever, of  the  Gnostics,  who  had  every  possible  motive  to 
throw  the  Gospels  into  discredit,  if  they  could  have 
done  so  with  any  show  of  reason.  The  theology  of  the 
Gnostics  was  an  incongruous  and  deformed  hybrid 
of  the  Oriental  Dualism  and  Christianity.  All  their 
mumerous  sects  were  agreed  in  maintaining  that  the 
supremely  good  God  of  the  New  Testament  was  a 
different  being  from  the  God  of  the  Old  Testament, 
who  was  the  creator  of  the  world  and  the  author  of 
the  Mosaic  theocracy  ;  and  that  Jesus  descended  from 
heaven,  not  in  body,  —  for  he  had  no  body,  —  but  in 
spirit,  to  reveal  the  supremely  good  God,  and  to  put 
away  the  imperfection  and  evil  that  deformed  the 
earthly  domain  of  the  Creator.  Of  these  sects,  the 
Marcionites  received  as  of  authority  the  Gospel  of 
Luke,  with  some  omissions  of  passages  unfavorable 
to  their  views,  and  disavowed  the  authority  of  the 
other  three,  not  because  they  questioned  their^genu- 
ineness,  but  for  a  reason  which  only  bears  added 
attestation  to  their  genuineness,  —  because  they  were 
so  thoroughly  Jewish.  The  remaining  sects  of  Gnos- 
tics received  all  four  of  the  Gospels  as  genuine,  and 
quoted  them  constantly  in  their  controversial  writ- 
ings, garbling  them,  indeed,  and  putting  text  and  text 


WRITERS  AGAINST  CHRISTIANITY.  37 

together,  so  as  often  to  elicit  from  the  two  a  meaning 
that  can  have  belonged  to  neither.  Irenaeus  and 
Tertullian  are  full  of  complaints  about  their  methods 
of  quoting  the  Gospels.  Irenaeus  says,  —  and  the 
sentence,  for  the  indirect  evidence  it  gives,  is  worth 
volumes  of  more  direct  testimony,  —  "  There  is  such 
assurance  concerning  the  Gospels,  that  the  heretics 
themselves  bear  testimony  to  them,  and  every  one  of 
them  endeavors  to  prove  his  doctrines  from  them." 

Now  it  is  certain  that  the  Gnostics  derived  no 
countenance  for  their  views  from  the  Gospels.  It 
would  have  been  very  much  to  their  purpose  to  prove 
these  books  to  be  of  late  or  doubtful  origin,  jottings 
down  of  floating  traditions,  or  compilations  by  un- 
authorized editors.  It  cost  them  a  vast  amount  of 
trouble,  contradiction,  and  absurdity,  to  quote  the 
Gospels  as  they  persisted  in  doing  ;  and  their  persist- 
ency is  to  be  accounted  for  only  on  the  ground  that 
they  believed  the  Gospels  to  have  emanated  from  the 
apostolic  circle.  Moreover,  as  Gnosticism  may  be 
traced  back  to  the  very  lifetime  of  the  apostles,  and 
as  the  Gnostics  would  have  run  counter  to  all  known 
laws  of  belief  and  action,  had  they  midway  on  their 
career  accepted  as  of  primitive  authority  books  that 
then  first  came  to  hand,  the  conclusion  is  inevitable 
that  the  Gospels  are  as  old  as  Gnosticism,  and,  if  so, 
that  they  are  in  date  and  authority  what  they  pur- 
port to  be. 

The  early  writers  against  Christianity  may  also  be 
cited  as  witnesses  to  the  genuineness  of  the  Gospels. 
They  quote  very  largely  from  the  Gospels,  assume 


38  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE, 

their  contents  as  the  basis  and  substance  of  Christian 
belief,  and  refer  to  them  as  written  by  the  immediate 
disciples  of  Jesus.  Only  one  of  these  hostile  writers 
lived  early  enough  to  be  of  importance  as  a  direct 
witness  to  primitive  tradition  ;  namely,  Celsus,  who 
was  contemporary  with  Irenaeus.  His  book  is  lost ; 
but  we  have  Origen's  answer  to  it,  in  which  he  con- 
stantly quotes  the  very  words  of  Celsus.  In  these 
numerous  extracts  the  author  perpetually  refers  to 
narratives  and  sayings  contained  in  our  Gospels,  so 
as  to  make  it  certain  that  he  had  these  and  no  other 
written  records  of  the  faith  which  he  assailed  ;  and  he 
speaks  of  the  statements  thus  quoted  as  "written  by  the 
disciples,"  and,  in  one  instance,  as  "  your  own  writings, 
in  addition  to  which  we  need  no  other  testimony." 
These  books  cannot,  therefore,  have  been  just  coming 
into  circulation  in  the  time  of  Irenaeus  ;  but  must 
even  then  have  been  currently  regarded,  by  enemies 
no  less  than  by  friends,  as  works  of  the  primitive 
disciples.  The  other  hostile  writers  who  might  be 
named,  like  Celsus,  treat  the  Gospels  as  the  undis- 
puted records  of  what  Jesus  was  believed  by  his 
disciples  to  have  done  and  said ;  and  they  are  of 
the  same  value  as  witnesses  with  such  Christian 
writers  as  were  contemporary  with  them  respec- 
tively.* 

I  have  thus  shown  you,  in  the  last  and  in  the  pres- 

*  The  testimony  in  behalf  of  Christianity,  derived  from  the  writ- 
ings of  its  early  Pagan  and  Jewish  adversaries,  is  exhibited  with  equal 
thoroughness  and  candor,  in  the  second  volume  of  "  Lowell  Lectures 
on  the  Evidences  of  Christianity,"  by  John  G.  Palfrey,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


STATUTE   OF  LIMITATIONS.  39 

ent  lecture,  that  the  testimony  of  orthodox  Christians, 
heretics,  and  enemies,  is  unanimous  and  manifold  in 
affirming  the  authorship  of  our  Gospels  in  the  apostolic 
age  by  primitive  disciples,  and,  wherever  names  are 
given,  by  the  men  whose  names  are  now  attached  to 
them.  This  authorship  has  been  denied,  not  on  the 
ground  of  the  discovery  of  any  new  testimony,  but  on 
the  score  of  the  alleged  inadequacy  of  that  which  has 
been  cited.  To  me  it  seems  more  than  sufficient,  even 
had  there  been  adverse  opinions  in  the  third  and  fourth 
centuries,  of  which  we  find  not  a  vestige.  Opinions 
of  later  times  have  no  validity  as  evidence.  We  may 
apply  here  a  principle  of  evidence  recognized  in  all  the 
courts  of  Christendom  ;  namely,  that  involved  in  the 
statute  of  limitations,  which  is  not  a  decree  of  arbi- 
trary legislation,  but  a  law  of  nature  and  a  dictate  of 
common  sense.  Permit  me  to  illustrate  its  application 
here.*  If  against  a  claim  openly  made  and  maintained, 
there  be  valid  adverse  claims,  it  is  morally  certain  that 
they  will  be  presented  while  the  evidence  for  them  is 
fresh,  the  witnesses  living,  and  the  whole  case  capable 
of  being  carefully  revised.  Experience  in  different 
countries  and  ages  can  easily  determine  the  extreme 
limit  of  time  within  which  valid  counter-claims  are 
likely  to  appear.  After  this  limit  is  passed,  if  adverse 
claims  are  presented,  not  only  the  legal,  but  the  moral 

*  The  author  is  indebted  for  the  suggestion  of  this  legal  analogy, 
as  also  for  a  similar  analogy  introduced  at  the  close  of  the  third  Lec- 
ture, to  his  friend  Rev.  Francis  Wharton,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  whose  well- 
known  legal  acumen  and  learning  are  most  happily  employed  in  the 
defence  and  illustration  of  the  Christian  faith  and  its  records. 


40  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

probability  is  •that  they  are  fraudulent  claims,  set  on 
foot  for  base  ends,  in  reliance  on  the  absence  of  origi- 
nal witnesses  or  the  disappearance  of  original  docu- 
ments. 

The  first  three  Christian  centuries  were  a  period  of 
perpetual  conflict  between  Christianity  and  rival  pre- 
established  religions.  During  this  whole  time  —  of 
which  we  have  many  surviving  literary  monuments, 
not  a  few  fragments  of  the  writings  of  enemies,  and, 
in  the  works  of  the  Christian  apologists,  the  pre- 
cise moulds  in  which  objections  were  cast  (for  the 
answers  of  course  show  what  the  objections  were)  — 
we  have  not  the  slightest  trace  of  a  doubt  as  to  the 
genuineness  of  the  Gospels.  During  this  same  period 
there  were,  also,  in  the  Church  heresies  wild  and  strange, 
forms  of  belief  so  thoroughly  extra-Christian  in  their 
origin  and  type,  that  we  can  hardly  imagine  how  their 
disciples  could  have  coveted  and  claimed  the  Chris- 
tian name.  Though  one  and  another  of  these  sects, 
on  doctrinal  grounds,  disclaimed  the  authority  of 
portions  of  this  or  that  Gospel,  and  one  of  them  set 
aside  three  of  the  Gospels,  —  just  as  Luther,  without 
doubting  that  St.  James  wrote  the  epistle  that  bears 
his  name,  called  it  an  epistle  of  straw,  because  he  did 
not  like  its  doctrines,  —  there  is  not  on  record  a  single 
instance  in  which  any  heretical  sect  or  writer  denied 
the  genuineness  of  either  of  the  Gospels.  They  would 
have  been  greatly  relieved  and  comforted  by  such 
denial ;  that  they  did  not  make  it  proves  that  they 
could  not  make  it.  Now  if  with  the  means  of  estab- 
lishing the   spuriousness   of    these   writings   within 


AUTHENTICITY  OF   THE   GOSPELS.  4 1 

reach ;  with  the  origins  of  Christianity  familiarly 
known  by  intelligent  and  hostile  Jews  scattered  all 
over  the  world,  and  by  not  a  few  of  the  cosmopolitan 
Roman  officials  of  various  grades,  civil  and  military, 
who,  for  a  time  in  Palestine,  were  subsequently  dis- 
persed through  the  empire,  —  if,  I  say,  with  these 
materials  for  sustaining  the  adverse  charge,  the  early 
authorship  of  the  Gospels  by  their  reputed  writers 
remained  unquestioned,  subsequent  doubts  might 
seem  ruled  out  by  a  reasonable  statute  of  limi- 
tations. If  there  existed  actual  grounds  for  such 
doubts,  they  would  have  been  exhibited  and  urged  in 
the  primitive  ages,  when  the  materials  for  substanti- 
ating them  still  existed.  Doubts  that  have  sprung  up 
almost  in  our  own  time  might  be  fairly  dismissed 
without  examining  their  alleged  merits,  as  we  would 
dismiss,  without  examination,  a  legal  claim  which  had 
been  suffered  to  lie  over  for  many  years  by  those  who 
had  the  strongest  interest  in  maintaining  it,  if  valid. 
It  is  not  my  intention,  however,  to  leave  these  doubts 
unexamined.  Those  that  relate  to  the  testimony  of 
the  early  centuries  have  been  already  considered. 
Others,  based  on  the  contents  of  the  Gospels,  will 
come  before  us  in  due  time. 

I  have  confined  myself  thus  far  to  the  question  of 
the  genuineness  of  the  Gospels.  Their  authenticity  will 
be  a  subject  of  future  inquiry.  But  I  will  avail  my- 
self of  the  few  moments  that  remain  of  the  present 
hour  to  offer  some  preliminary  considerations  on  this 
head. 

In  the  first  place,  the  genuineness  of  these  writings 


42  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

is  of  itself  a  strong  argument  for  their  authenticity. 
The  authors  had  the  best  opportunities  for  knowing 
what  they  recorded.  Matthew  and  John  were  the 
companions  of  Jesus  for  many  months,  and  John 
took  care  of  the  mother  of  Jesus  after  her  Son  had 
departed  from  the  earth.  The  house  of  Mark's 
mother  was  one  of  the  rallying  points  for  the  Chris- 
tians of  Jerusalem  shortly  after  their  Master  had  left 
them  ;  and  there  is,  therefore,  hardly  a  doubt  that  he 
and  his  mother  had  been  disciples  of  Jesus  during  his 
lifetime.  Moreover,  uniform  tradition  assures  us  that 
Mark's  Gospel  was  virtually  Peter's,  Mark  having 
written  what  he  heard  from  Peter  ;  and  there  are 
in  the  Gospel  strong  marks  of  the  fervid  genius  of 
Peter,  especially  in  the  preservation,  in  several  in- 
stances, of  the  precise  Syro-Chaldaic  words  used  by 
Jesus  under  circumstances  of  peculiar  interest.  Such 
a  mind  as  Peter's  would  have  treasured  up  the  mere 
sounds  that  fell  from  his  Master's  lips,  and  he  would 
have  been  the  very  man  to  reproduce  them  even  where 
they  were  unintelligible  till  interpreted.  Luke  was 
an  intimate  friend  of  the  apostles  :  his  name  is  found 
in  some  old  lists  of  the  seventy  disciples,  —  lists,  in- 
deed, whose  authenticity  cannot  be  affirmed,  yet  which 
are  from  their  very  nature  among  the  things  least 
likely  to  be  forged  ;  and  so  graphic  is  his  description 
of  the  walk  to  Emmaus,  that  I  cannot  resist  the 
belief  that  he  was  the  companion  of  Cleopas  on  that 
memorable  occasion.  These  men  had,  then,  the  re- 
quisite knowledge. 

Had  they  any  motive  for  writing  such  narratives,  if 


THE   GOSPELS  INDEPENDENT  RECORDS.         43 

they  knew  them  to  be  false  ?  We  can  conceive  of  none. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  was  for  their  earthly,  interest  to 
suppress  the  whole  marvellous  story,  or  to  leave  it  to 
take  shape  as  it  might,  if  they  knew  it  to  be  true. 
They  had  nothing  to  gain,  and  every  thing  to  lose,  by 
writing  and  circulating  such  narratives  as  these  books 
contain.  For  the  cause  in  behalf  of  which  they  wrote, 
they  and  all  their  associates  were  sufferers,  many  even 
to  death. 

But  might  they  not  have  been  deluded }  Their  style 
is  not  that  of  madmen,  or  of  men  laboring  under  hal- 
lucination. They  write  very  calmly.  No  one  can  talk 
about  the  events  they  describe  with  as  little  emotion 
as  they  manifest  in  writing  about  them.  I  know  of 
no  way  of  accounting  for  a  style  like  theirs,  except 
by  supposing  that  they  had  become  so  much  accus- 
tomed to  experiences  on  a  higher  plane  than  that  of 
common  humanity  as  to  be  almost  unconscious  of 
their  unique  position,  —  just  as  natives  of  Switzerland 
might  talk  and  write  quietly  and  coldly  about  snow- 
peaks,  glaciers,  and  avalanches,  the  very  thought  of 
which  quickens  our  pulses,  and  as  to  which  we  are 
capable  only  of  glowing  and  enthusiastic  utterance. 

It  next  claims  our  emphatic  notice,  that  the  relation 
of  these  four  books  to  one  another  is  such  as  to  con- 
firm the  authenticity  of  each  and  all.  The  writers 
manifestly  did  not  copy  from  one  another.  The 
resemblances  and  parallelisms  of  the  synoptic  Gospels 
will  be  a  subject  for  distinct  consideration  hereafter, 
and  may,  I  think,  be  fully  accounted  for.  But  that 
they  were  not  copyists  of  one  another's  books  is  very 


44  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

manifest,  both  from  the  materials  of  transcendent  in- 
terest peculiar  to  each,  which  no  copyist  would  have 
been  willing  to  omit,  and  from  the  frequent  occurrence 
of  just  such  unessential  discrepancies  as  would  natu- 
rally and  necessarily  be  found  in  independent  narra- 
tives. Then,  too,  in  every  instance  in  which  a  many- 
sided  action  is  described,  each  writes  as  if  he  had 
regarded  it  from  a  different  point  of  view.  Thus,  in 
the  narrative  of  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  while  they 
all  record  the  main  fact  and  a  very  few  of  the  acces- 
sory facts,  each  relates  circumstances  which  may 
have  escaped  the  notice  or  eluded  the  knowledge  of 
the  others,  had  they  belonged  to  different  groups  of 
disciples,  or  lodged  at  different  houses,  or  first  became 
apprised  of  what  was  taking  place  at  different  moments 
of  that  eventful  day. 

There  are  also  many  cases  in  which  one  of  the 
Gospels  supplies  what  is  necessary  to  the  clear  under- 
standing of  the  others.  For  instance,  in  each  of  the 
first  three  Gospels  we  have  a  list  of  the  twelve  apostles. 
In  Matthew  and  Luke  the  lists  are  given  in  pairs, 
"  Simon  and  Andrew,  James  and  John,  Philip  and 
Bartholomew ; "  but  there  appears  no  reason  for  so 
grouping  them.  In  Mark's  Gospel  they  are  not  thus 
grouped  ;  but  in  that  alone  we  are  told  that  Jesus 
sent  them  forth  to  preach  ''  by  two  and  two." 

Another  case  of  the  same  kind  may  be  found  in  the 
narrative  of  Christ's  appearance  before  Pilate.  Accord- 
ing to  Luke,  he  is  charged  with  calling  himself  a  king. 
Pilate  asks  if  he  is  the  king  of  the  Jews,  and  on  his 
admitting  the  charge,  strangely  enough  for  a  Roman 


THE   GOSPELS  EXPLAIN  ONE  ANOTHER.         45* 

procurator,  says  at  once,  "  I  find  no  fault  in  him." 
This  can  be  explained  only  by  John's  narrative,  in 
which  Jesus  says  to  Pilate,  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of 
this  world.  To  this  end  was  I  born,  and  for  this 
cause  came  I  into  the  world,  that  I  should  bear  wit- 
ness unto  the  truth.  Every  one  that  is  of  the  truth 
heareth  my  voice  ; "  that  is,  belongs  to  my  kingdom. 
Pilate,  thus  convinced  that  as  against  the  Roman 
sovereignty  the  alleged  kingship  has  no  significance, 
says  very  naturally,  and  in  accordance  with  the  fitness 
of  his  official  position,  "  I  find  no  fault  in  him." 

These  are  specimens  of  numerous  instances  in 
which  one  evangelist,  after  the  manner  of  an  un- 
artistic,  inexperienced  writer,  tells  but  part  of  a  story, 
omitting  what  alone  could  fully  explain  it,  and  the 
explanation  is  supplied  by  a  like  fragmentary  state- 
ment of  another  of  the  four.  In  fine,  the  Gospels  are 
full,  not  of  superficial,  obtrusive  coincidences,  which 
are  always  suspicious  and  always  abound  in  falsified 
narratives,  but  of  latent  coincidences,  such  as  reveal 
themselves  only  on  close  inspection  and  diligent  study, 
such  as  could  never  have  been  invented  or  contrived, 
such  as  can  be  explained  by  no  hypothesis  other  than 
the  substantial  truth  of  the  several  narratives. 

We  have  lingered  thus  far,  as  it  were,  in  the  outer 
courts.  In  the  next  Lecture  we  will  approach  —  may 
it  be  with  profound  and  loving  reverence  !  —  the  holy 
of  hoHes,  and  consider  Jesus  himself,  in  the  human 
and  divine  personality  in  which  his  historians  present 
him,  as  the  most  conclusive  argument  for  the  authen- 
ticity of  those  biographies  which  enshrine  the  faith 
and  hope  of  our  race. 


LECTURE   III. 

INTERNAL  EVIDENCE  OF  AUTHENTICITY.  —  THE  HUMAN 
VIRTUES  OF  CHRIST.  —  HIS  ETHICAL  AND  RELIGIOUS 
TEACHINGS.  —  HIS  INFLUENCE.  —  THE  DIVINE  SIDE  OF 
HIS  CHARACTER.  —  HIS  SUPERHUMAN  WORKS  NEITHER 
IMPOSTURE  NOR  DELUSION.  —  ADMISSIONS  OF  EARLY 
ADVERSARIES     OF    CHRISTIANITY. 

TN  my  last  two  Lectures  I  have  endeavored  to  establish 
-*•  the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  our  canonical 
Gospels,  partly  by  adequate  testimony,  partly  by  their 
superficial  characteristics  and  their  relations  to  one 
another.  The  contents  of  a  book  have  an  important 
bearing  on  the  question  of  its  authenticity.  There  are 
books  which  cannot  be  believed.  There  are  books 
which,  unless  they  were  true,  could  not  have  been 
written.  No  one  could  believe  the  Baron  von  Mun- 
chausen's narrative  of  his  adventures,  though  it  made 
its  first  public  appearance  under  his  own  highly  re- 
spectable name  and  authority.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  was  probably  never  a  classical  scholar  so  scepti- 
cal as  not  to  give  entire  credence  to  Xenophon's 
Anabasis,  —  a  story  so  coherent,  so  closely  in  accord- 
ance with  all  that  is  known  of  its  time  and  scenes  from 
other  sources,  and  in  portions  so  journal-like,  equally 
in  its  minuteness  and  its  vividness,  that,  were  the 
book  found  now  for  the  first  time,  without  the  author's 


CHARACTER    OF  CHRIST.  47 

name,  the  universal  verdict  would  be  that  it  was  per- 
fectly true  throughout,  and  undoubtedly  written  by 
one  who  had  borne  part  in  some  of  the  principal 
events  recorded.  The  story,  unless  true,  could  not 
have  been  written. 

The  object  of  my  present  Lecture  is  to  establish  this 
same  proposition  as  to  our  canonical  Gospels.  They 
could  not  have  been  written,  had  they  not  been  true. 
To  test  this  statement,  let  us  take  an  inventory  of  their 
contents. 

The  character  of  Jesus  Christ  stands  out  alone, 
whether  in  fable  or  in  history.  Viewed  in  its  human 
aspects,  it  is  entirely  unique.  There  is  a  blending,  a 
harmonizing,  of  all  seeming  contrasts  of  moral  excel- 
lence, —  of-  traits,  any  one  of  which  in  equal  lustre 
would  have  immortalized  him  in  whom  it  shone  forth 
among  multiplied  imperfections  and  foibles,  —  magna- 
nimity and  humility  ;  firmness  and  meekness  ;  uncom- 
promising justice  and  unexhausted  benevolence  ; 
dignity  and  condescension  ;  the  spirit  of  command 
and  that  of  the  lowliest  service  ;  purity  in  which  the 
most  watchful  hostility  could  detect  no  stain,  and 
tenderness  for  the  lowest,  vilest  types  of  depravity  ; 
a  walk  with  God  so  close  that  he  seemed  ever  within 
temple-gates,  and  yet  a  walk  with  man  so  genial, 
friendly,  loving,  and  helpful,  that  his  eyes  and 
thoughts  might  seem  never  lifted  above  the  sur- 
rounding world  ;  a  might  stern  and  resolute,  such 
as  was  never  witnessed  before  or  since  in  the  conflict 
with  evil,  and  a  submission  and  resignation  so  serene 
and  trustful,  so  gentle  and  kindly,  as  to  call  forth  the 


48  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

admiration  and  sympathy  of  men  whose  Uves  had  been 
passed  in  scenes  of  warfare  and  carnage. 

This  picture  is  presented  under  a  kaleidoscopic 
diversity  of  aspects.  We  see  Jesus  in  every  condition 
of  Hfe :  in  moments  of  triumph,  with  the  hosannas 
of  adoring  multitudes  ;  in  hours  of  rude  buffeting, 
coarse  jeers,  and  brutal  insults,  when  Jew  tosses 
him  over  with  cruel  scorn  to  Gentile  mockery,  and 
Gentile  remands  him  scourged  and  lacerated  to  fresh 
Jewish  outrage.  We  behold  him,  now  at  the  marriage 
feast ;  now  by  the  death-bed,  the  bier,  the  grave-side  ; 
in  the  evening  with  the  friends  at  Bethany,  to  whom 
his  advent  is  high  festival ;  on  the  morrow  among  those 
who  despise  his  claims  and  scoff  at  his  teachings  ; 
then  among  disciples  who  misapprehend  his  words, 
misconceive  his  mission,  annoy  him  by  their  paltry 
rivalries,  disturb  his  serenity  by  their  angry  strife  ; 
then,  again,  among  those  who  watch  every  word  and 
gesture  that  they  may  find  ground  of  censure  and 
accusation  ;  then  among  those  who  look  to  him  for 
temporal  benefits,  but  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  his  counsel 
and  admonition.  We  are  admitted  even  to  his  retire- 
ment. His  heart  is  laid  open  to  us.  We  learn  that, 
as  others  by  sleep,  he  by  midnight  devotion  seeks 
strength  for  the  burden  of  the  day ;  and  through  the 
agony  of  prayer  in  Gethsemane  comes  to  him  the 
peace,  the  sweetness,  the  triumph  of  that  awful, 
glorious  death-scene  on  the  cross. 

In  this  entire  picture  of  human  virtue,  we  find  no 
situation  or  incident  out  of  keeping  with  any  other,  or 
out  of  harmony  with  the  relations  in  which  he  stood 


RECOGNITION  OF  CHRIST'S  CHARACTER.         49 

to  the  institutions,  life,  and  men  of  his  time.  It  is  not 
a  compilation  of  excerpts  from  different  lives  ;  not  like 
some  of  the  stories  of  heroes  in  prehistoric  times,  and 
those  in  the  hagiobiography  of  the  early  Christian 
ages,  the  heaping  together  under  one  name  of  anec- 
dotes, events,  and  traditions,  that  evidently  had  at  the 
outset  various  titles.  The  narrative  is  homogeneous  ; 
its  contents  belong  together.  The  four  Gospels  mani- 
festly present  different  sections  —  often  parallel,  and, 
when  not  so,  mutually  consistent  and  of  like  staple 
—  of  one  and  the  same  life,  real  or  imagined.  Even 
were  it  maintained  that  the  longer  discourses  in  the 
fourth  Gospel  differ  essentially  from  those  in  the  other 
three  ;  still  the  human  Jesus  of  John  is  precisely  the 
same  person  with  that  of  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke, 
with  not  a  trace  or  shade  of  difference  as  to  the  feat- 
ures of  character  or  the  style  of  incident.  It  is  no 
more  certain  of  the  several  biographers  of  Washington 
than  of  the  evangelists,  that  they  wrote  the  life  of  one 
and  the  same  personage,  or,  if  fictitious,  of  one  and  the 
same  unreal  character,  whose  fabulous  history  was 
equally  known  to  them  all. 

As  to  the  features  of  Christ's  character,  we  may 
say,  without  fear  of  contradiction,  that  they  have 
commanded  the  entire  approval  of  persons  of  every 
age,  condition,  and  culture,  and  the  most  cordially,  of 
the  confessedly  greatest,  wisest,  and  best.  Whatever 
objections  there  are  to  the  contents  of  the  Gospels  do 
not  apply  to  the  character  of  Jesus  as  a  man.  "  We 
can  find  no  fault  in  him,"  has  been  the  verdict  of  his 
enemies  from  Pilate  until  now.     Nor  can  we  detect  in 

3 


50  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

him  the  absence  of  any  virtue  or  grace  which  enters 
into  our  highest  ideal  of  human  excellence. 

His,  too,  is  a  character  whose  pre-eminent  worth 
wins  universal  recognition.  Though  he  is  a  Jew  as 
to  birth  and  surroundings,  there  is  no  Hebrew  or 
Oriental  element  about  him  which  interferes  in  the 
least  with  the  appreciation  of  his  moral  supremacy  by 
nationalities  of  the  opposite  stamp.  The  German,  the 
Englishman,  the  Frenchman,  is  not  constrained  to 
make  the  slightest  abatement  or  allowance  in  estimat- 
ing his  merits.  He  belongs  equally  to  all  ages.  He 
has  no  secular  parallax.  In  the  darkest  times  he  has 
been  acknowledged  as  supremely  perfect,  and  equally 
so  at  epochs  of  the  highest  culture,  mental  and  moral. 
He  is  transcendently  beautiful  and  glorious  to  the 
rudest  aspirant  after  goodness  ;  and  no  less  so  to  a 
Fenelon,  a  Martyn,  an  Oberlin,  a  Judson.  The  ignorant 
woman  who  can  hardly  spell  out  his  story  in  her  Bible 
can  imagine  no  other  being  so  lovely,  so  adorable  ;  and 
he  seems  no  less  the  highest  type  of  humanity  to  Mil- 
ton, Newton,  Locke,  Bunsen,  Faraday.  In  the  galaxy 
of  the  greatly  good,  he  is  not  a  star  a  little  brighter 
than  the  rest,  but  a  sun  in  whose  light  the  stars  grow 
pale. 

Such  is  the  character  which  either  grew  under  the 
pens  of  the  evangelists,  or  was  incarnated  in  the  life 
of  one  of  their  coevals.  The  former  hypothesis  need 
detain  us  but  a  moment ;  for  probably  hardly  any  one 
holds  it  now.  Friendly  and  hostile  critics  will  agree 
that  the  evangelists  show  neither  the  imagination,  the 
culture,  nor  the  capacity  of  authorship,  which  would 


THE   GOSPELS  NOT  FICTIONS.  5 1 

have  started  them  on  the  career  of  fictitious  literature, 
or  made  their  success  in  it  even  possible.  They  evi- 
dently used  with  no  little  difficulty  the  language  in 
which  they  wrote.  They  exhibit  no  familiarity  with 
any  literature  except  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  Their 
style  is  literal,  prosaic,  unimaginative.  The  first  three 
enter  but  imperfectly  into  the  beauty  and  majesty  of 
their  own  picture,  —  build  better  than  they  know,  — 
describe  a  breadth  and  a  tenderness  of  spirit  with 
which,  when  they  write,  they  have  hardly  come  into 
full  sympathy. 

Then,  too,  the  differences  among  the  evangelists  as 
to  style  and  material  render  it  certain  that  they  were 
four  men,  not  one  man  under  four  names.  Now,  were 
you  to  set  the  four  most  able  and  accomplished  writers 
that  can  be  found  to  write  four  fictitious  stories  about 
the  same  imaginary  personage,  in  such  a  way  that  the 
events  of  the  four  can  be  combined  into  one  story,  and 
that  there  shall  be  nothing  in  the  hero  as  described  by 
either  of  the  four  that  shall  not  be  in  perfect  harmony 
with  all  that  is  related  of  him  by  the  other  three,  it  is 
inconceivable  that,  without  more  than  human  genius 
and  vigilance,  there  should  not  escape  here  and  there, 
from  one  or  another  of  them,  an  expression  out  of 
keeping  with  the  rest.  Nay  more,  the  hero  himself, 
though  intended  to  be  the  same,  could  not  pass 
through  these  four  different  moulds  without  some 
variation  of  form  and  feature,  discernible,  if  not  to 
superficial  view,  on  close  inspection.  The  only 
alternative  is  that  the  character  described  by  the 
evangelists  actually  existed  in  a  person  whom  they 
all  knew. 


52  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Here  T  am  ready  to  join  the  company  of  unbelievers 
in  maintaining  that,  in  accordance  with  the  recognized 
laws  of  human  nature  and  development,  such  a  man 
could  not  have  sprung  up  and  lived  in  that  age  and 
people.  If  you  will  look  through  the  list  of  eminently 
good  men  in  all  times  and  nations,  you  will  find,  Jesus 
Christ  alone  excepted,  not  one  who  does  not  bear  a 
perceptible  relation  to  his  antecedents  and  surround- 
ings. Other  good  men  have  become  illustrious  by 
transcending  by  a  very  little  the  moral  standard  of 
their  day,  by  ridding  themselves  of  a  few  prevalent 
partialities  or  prejudices,  by  abjuring  the  most  glaring 
faults  of  their  contemporaries  ;  in  fine,  by  anticipating 
the  next  stage  of  progress.  But  none  of  them  have 
lost  the  flavor  of  their  native  soil,  or  obliterated  the 
date-mark  of  their  birth.  Socrates  would  not  be 
received  as  an  exemplary  man  anywhere  in  Christen- 
dom. Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus  would  not  satisfy 
a  purist  of  our  day.  The  saints  worshipped  by  the 
Romish  Church  would,  many  of  them,  be  excommuni- 
cated were  they  living  now  ;  and  those  of  them  who 
were  truly  holy  men,  often  from  conscientious  motives, 
outraged  all  the  decencies  of  common  life.  There 
were  many  things  licensed  among  good  men  of  the 
last  century  which  would  be  utterly  inconsistent  with 
respectability,  not  to  say  piety,  at  the  present  time. 
Praying  men .  commanded  slave-ships  and  privateers. 
Ministers  of  the  Gospel  managed  lotteries,  and  har- 
vested their  profits  for  the  supposed  interests  of 
religion.  As  intelligence  advances,  even  if  the  world 
does  not  grow  better,  Christians  see  more  clearly  what 


THE  PASSIVE    VIRTUES.  53 

they  ought  to  be,  and  each  generation  finds  deficiencies 
and  faults  in  the  standard  of  all  that  preceded  it.  Christ 
alone  does  not  fall  under  this  law. 

Do  you  say  that  he  had  before  him  the  examples  of 
the  great  men  of  the  earlier  dispensation,  —  patriarchs, 
psalmists,  seers  }  I  ask  in  reply,  Fall  they  not  into  the 
same  category  with  all  other  worthies  of  the  early 
time.!*  Abraham,  Jacob,  Moses,  Samuel,  Elijah, — 
is  there  one  of  these  whom  Jesus  can  have  taken  as 
a  model  for  his  character.**  Moses  and  Elijah  are 
in  the  record  (as  I  believe  they  were  visibly  on  the 
mountain  of  transfiguration)  placed  side  by  side  with 
him,  —  grand,  glorious  men  for  their  times,  well  worthy 
to  be  captains  in  the  Lord's  host ;  but  both  of  them 
men  of  violence  and  blood,  implacably  vindictive 
against  the  enemies  of  God,  more  prompt  to  curse 
than  to  bless.  The  Jewish  type  of  virtue  and  piety 
was  harsh  and  hard,  narrow  and  exclusive,  ungentle 
and  stern,  at  the  opposite  pole  from  that  of  Christ. 
The  Hebrews,  like  the  classic  nations,  had  no  esteem  for 
what  we  call  the  passive  virtues,  —  to  the  whole  ancient 
world  not  virtues,  but  weaknesses.  These  virtues  had 
not  even  decent  names  in  the  language  in  which  the 
evangelists  wrote.  The  only  names  which  they  could 
find  for  humility  meant  (like  the  Latin  Jmmilitas)  not 
a  good  quality,  but  a  mean  quality,  —  grovelling  abjectly 
on  the  ground  ;  and  these  words,  for  lack  of  better,  the 
sacred  writers  had  to  pick  up  out  of  the  dust,  and  to  give 
them  Christian  baptism,  to  denote  a  habit  of  mind 
which  in  Jesus  Christ  was  for  the  first  time  consecrated 
as  a  duty  and  a  virtue,  but  which  is  now  a  gem  second 


54  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

in  lustre  to  none  in  the  kingly  diadem  with  which  grate- 
ful generations  have  crowned  him  who  unearthed  it. 

Jesus  was,  indeed,  "  a  root  out  of  a  dry  ground." 
He  is  not  to  be  accounted  for  by  any  spiritual  Dar- 
winism, by  any  possible  process  of  development.  Do 
what  you  will  with  his  character,  you  cannot  bring 
him  into  line  with  his  predecessors,  whether  Jewish 
or  Gentile,  or  with  the  culture  or  standard  of  his  age. 
These  eighteen  centuries  of  progress  have  not  brought 
the  advanced  guard  of  humanity  up  to  him.  We  can 
trace  the  rudiments  of  other  pre-eminent  characters, 
and  show  whence  and  how  they  grew.  There  is  no 
human  or  earthly  accounting  for  him.  Yet  he  must 
have  lived  ;  if  not,  you  have  a  still  more  marvellous 
prodigy,  —  an  unprecedented,  unequalled,  and  unac- 
countable creation  of  transcendent  excellence,  re- 
peated fourfold  in  the  imaginations  of  two  fishermen, 
a  tax-gatherer,  and  an  obscure  physician  in  Galilee. 

But  this  is  not  all.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Jesus  taught  no  less  than  lived.  Renan  admits  that 
the  ethical  teachings  of  the  Gospels  were  for  the  most 
part  handed  down  from  his  lips.  And  what  are  they } 
It  is  conceded  by  candid  and  virtuous  unbelievers,  it 
is  asserted  in  every  form  of  strong  asseveration  by 
Renan,  that  "  never  man  spake  like  this  man."  We 
find  no  pre-arranged  system  in  his  words.  They  were 
suggested  by  the  occasion,  the  scene,  the  casual  sur- 
roundings, the  incident  of  the  moment.  Yet  when  we 
put  them  together,  we  find  no  lacuna,  no  department 
of  duty  omitted,  no  question  which  the  tender  con- 
science  can    ask   unanswered.     While   his    Church 


THE  MORALITY  OF  THE   GOSPEL.  55 

has  made  but  slow  advances  in  the  embodying  of  his 
precepts,  and  still  falls  far  short  of  the  fulness  of  his 
requirements,  not  one  of  them  has  been  disallowed  or 
outgrown  or  transcended  ;  nor  has  the  keenest  or  the 
most  malevolent  criticism  detected  fault  or  flaw  in  the 
morality  that  flowed  in  his  words  and  was  incarnated 
in  his  life. 

Here,  again,  we  find  him  alone  and  unapproached. 
Socrates,  Plato,  Zeno,  Cicero,  Plutarch,  Seneca,  have 
been   outgrown.     Socrates   gave  a  broad   license  in 
some  portions  of  the  moral  code,  and  virtually  sanc- 
tioned by  acquiescence  tantamount  to  approval,  if  not 
in  his  own  practice,  some  of  the  worst  vices  of  his  age. 
In  Plato's  morals,  with  much  that  is  pure  and  noble, 
there  are  some  of  the  worst  maxims  that  disgrace  the 
phalanstery.     The    Stoics   were  in   certain   respects 
almost  Christian  ;   but   their  philosophy   gave   scant 
honor  to  the  gentler  virtues,  and  recommended  sui- 
cide as  the  wise  man's  avenue  of  relief  from  defeat, 
disappointment,  incurable  disease,  and  the  infirmities 
of  old  age.     The  Hebrew  morality,  divine  so  far  as  it 
went,  yet  imperfect,  needed  at  every  point  the  "  filling 
out,"  which  neither  sage  nor  prophet  had  conceived, 
but  which  Jesus  gave  at  the  very  beginning  of  his 
ministry.     His  movement  among  the  virtues  was  no 
less    than   revolutionary.     The  mountains  were  laid 
low  ;  the  valleys  exalted.     The  first  were  made  last ; 
the  last  first.     And  the  moral  judgment  of  the  Chris- 
tian centuries  has,  point  for  point,  sustained  his  deci- 
sions.    That  such  a  teacher,  remote  from  all  the  great 
centres  of  intelligence,  destitute  even  of  such  instruc- 


56  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

tion  as  the  rabbles  of  his  nation  might  have  given  him, 
should  have  been  nurtured  and  developed,  by  the  might 
of  his  own  genius,  in  that  poor,  starveling  village  in  a 
despised  corner  of  Palestine,  is  simply  impossible. 
Yet  that  there  was  one  such,  if  not  four,  is  an  his- 
torical fact  as  fully  authenticated  as  is  the  fact  that 
Augustus  Caesar  was  the  Roman  Emperor  at  the 
reputed  era  of  his  birth. 

Yet  more.   There  were  other  than  ethical  teachings. 
No  one  doubts  that  Jesus  proclaimed  the  fatherhood  of 
God  as  it  had  never  been  conceived  before  ;  that  he 
declared  the  doctrine  of  a  full  and  righteous  retribution 
for  the  good  and  evil  of  men's  lives,  —  a  retribution 
reaching  out  into  the  depths  of  eternity  ;  that  he  pre- 
sented the  divine  clemency  and  forgiveness  for  re- 
pented sin,  as  to  which  there  had  been  previously  no 
clear  assurance,  and  which  had  been  tentatively,  often 
despairingly,  sought  by  bloody  sacrifices,  nay,  by  hor- 
rible self-torture,  and,  even  in  highly  civilized  commu- 
nities, by  the  immolation  of  human  victims,  in  lieu  of 
all  which  he  prospectively  announced  his  own  impend- 
ing sacrifice  on  the  cross  as  fully  and  for  ever  sufficient. 
Toward  the  last  of  these  great  truths,  there  had  been 
in  the  later  Hebrew  prophets  a  certain  negative  ten- 
dency in  the  comparatively  low  esteem  in  which  they 
regarded  sacrifice  ;  but  even  from  this  tendency  the 
nation    had    retroceded    into    the   merest   ritualism. 
Immortality,  dimly  taught,  if  at  all,  in  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures,  denied  by  the  Sadducees,  travestied  by  the 
Pharisees,  had  nowhere,  either  on  Jewish  or  Gentile 
soil,  been  so  received  as  to  furnish  motives  for  the 


THE  DOCTRINES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  57 

government  of  the  earthly  Hfe,  comfort  under  its  griefs, 
or  a  confident  onlooking  beyond  its  confines.  As  for 
the  divine  nature,  its  paternal  aspect  toward  the  indi- 
vidual worshipper  or  the  Jewish  people  is  recognized 
but  sparingly,  toward  others  than  Hebrews  in  not  a 
single  undoubted  instance,  in  their  national  Scriptures. 
Yet,  without  any  intermediate  stage  of  development, 
these  truths  come  from  Jesus  Christ,  clear,  round,  and 
full,  so  that  there  are  no  statements  of  them  in  human 
language  so  explicit  and  satisfying  as  his  ;  and,  what 
is  more,  they  take  their  start  from  him  as  motive 
powers  of  the  intensest  momentum  and  efficacy. 
The  divine  fatherhood,  through  his  ministry  extended 
to  Canaanite  and  Samaritan,  in  John  and  Paul  fruc- 
tified into  a  universal  brotherhood,  which  has  been 
the  soul  of  Christian  propagandism  and  philanthropy 
until  now.  Immortality,  from  a  vague  conjecture, 
exhaled  when  most  needed,  through  him  became  a 
conviction  immovable  as  the  consciousness  of  self- 
hood, with  unexhausted  energizing  power  both  for 
brave  endurance  and  for  virtuous  action.  From  him, 
too,  the  divine  forgiveness — with  precisely  the  agency 
which  was  first  attributed,  not  by  those  who  came  after 
him,  but  by  himself  prophetically,  to  his  own  death  — 
grew  at  once  into  a  regenerating  force,  by  faith  in  itself 
creating  its  own  subjects  in  a  line  of  succession  which, 
commencing  on  the  first  Pentecost  after  his  crucifixion, 
promises  to  last  as  long  as  sin  shall  endure.  These 
revolutionary  doctrines  were  enunciated,  established, 
put  into  action  by  one  who  in  training,  position,  and 
external  advantages,  possessed  no  prestige  whatever, — • 

3* 


58  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

by  one  who  was  unlikely  to  be  either  highly  intelligent 
or  peculiarly  spiritual,  and  still  less  likely  to  obtain 
extended  or  lasting  influence. 

There  are  some  facts  of  a  more  comprehensive 
scope  that  belong  essentially  with  the  specific  con- 
siderations which  I  have  stated.  Jesus  Christ,  whose 
actual  existence,  as  I  have  shown,  alone  can  account 
for  the  existence  of  the  Gospels,  was  in  every  human 
point  of  view  by  far  the  most  remarkable  man  of  any 
age  or  race.  Who  else  is  there  whose  birth  civilized 
man  would  ever  have  consented,  or  could  without 
patent  absurdity  have  proposed,  to  assume  as  an  era 
from  which  to  date  our  years  }  Yet  this  seems  un- 
natural to  no  one  ;  for  his  birth  marks  the  intrusion 
among  pre-existing  forces  of  a  force  which,  whether 
human  or  divine,  has  proved  greater  than  all  the  rest. 
It  has  furnished  the  characteristic  elements  of  West- 
ern as  distinguished  from  Oriental  civilization.  It  has 
so  underlain  every  improvement  in  sociology,  public 
policy,  international  law,  nay,  even  commerce  and 
finance,  that  when  professedly  new  maxims  in  these 
departments  have  been  promulgated,  adopted,  estab- 
lished, it  is  always  found  that  they  are  corollaries  from 
principles  which  Jesus  proclaimed,  and  may  be  re- 
translated, and  for  the  better,  into  the  very  words  that 
fell  from  his  lips.  The  paramount  efficiency  of  this 
force  is  owned  by  its  enemies  no  less  than  by  its 
friends.  No  other  cause  enlists  so  devoted  cham- 
pions ;  none  other  awakens  so  intense  antagonism.  It 
is  a  stone  of  stumbling  ever  in  the  way  of  those  who 
will  not  build  upon  it. 


THE  HUMAN  AND  DIVINE  IN  CHRIST.  59 

Proved,  but  improbable  ;  certain,  yet  incredible  ; 
historical  verity,  still  none  the  less  an  impossibility, 

—  is  this  human  life  of  Jesus  taken  alone.  Had  we 
this,  and  no  more,  we  should  have  ample  exterior 
evidence  for  the  story,  yet  should  be  utterly  unable 
to  account  for  it.  But  the  evangelists  do  not  leave 
these  marvels  unaccounted  for.  According  to  them, 
Jesus  bears  a  unique  relation  to  the  Supreme  Being,  — 
a  sonship  more  intimate,  more  entirely  consubstantial 

—  if  you  will  tolerate  a  word  from  the  old  theology  — 
than  belongs  to  any  other  being  in  the  universe.  He 
is  the  image,  in  human  form,  of  the  omnipresent  and 
eternal  God.  It  is  his  special  mission,  living  and 
dying,  to  manifest  all  of  the  divine  that  can  admit  of 
manifestation.  This  mission  is  reported,  not  on  the 
mere  evidence  of  his  assertions,  but  as  attested  by  the 
exercise  of  such  supernatural  powers  as  put  the  seal 
of  God  upon  him  and  upon  his  utterances.  Disease 
flees  at  his  touch.  The  maniac  grows  sane  under  his 
eye.  He  walks  on  the  lake  as  by  its  shore.  The  bier 
and  the  grave  yield  up  their  dead  at  his  summons. 
Chief  of  all,  —  barely  to  name  a  subject  to  which  a 
Lecture  of  this  course  will  be  devoted,  —  he  rises 
from  his  own  sepulchre,  and  reappears  repeatedly  to 
those  who  had  seen  him  dying,  dead,  and  entombed. 

If  all  this  be  true,  there  remains  no  difficulty  in  ac- 
counting for  the  character,  the  teachings,  the  extended 
and  enduring  influence  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  divine 
and  the  human  side  of  his  person,  character,  and 
history,  are  in  entire  harmony,  and  cannot  be  severed 
in  thought.     The  human  presupposes  the  divine  as 


6o  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

its  only  solution  ;  the  divine  could  have  had  no  in- 
ferior human  manifestation.  They  are  inseparable  in 
the  record.  The  life  of  Jesus  in  the  Gospels  is  not  a 
human  life,  with  strange  and  supernatural  incidents  in- 
terspersed here  and  there.  In  this  respect  it  differs 
entirely  from  numerous  biographies  of  personages  in 
Greek  and  Roman  history,  and  of  saints  in  the  Christian 
calendar.  Their  stories  contain  supernatural  events  ; 
but  you  can  cut  them  out  from  the  record,  and  there 
will  remain  a  perfectly  coherent  and  credible  biog- 
raphy. The  lives  of  St.  Francis  de  Sales  and  St. 
Elisabeth  of  Thuringia,  for  instance,  may,  with  an 
occasional  omission,  be  made  holy  and  beneficent  lives, 
such  as  those  saints  undoubtedly  led.  But  no  such 
process  can  be  performed  with  the  life  of  Jesus.  The 
divine  is  inextricably  blended  with  the  human.  It 
forms  part  of  the  warp  and  woof  of  the  whole  story. 
You  can  no  more  expunge  the  supernatural  and  leave 
a  coherent  narrative,  than  you  can  cut  out  some  of  the 
figures  of  a  piece  of  tapestry  and  leave  a  fabric  that 
shall  retain  aught  of  comeliness  and  beauty.  Some- 
times it  is  the  divine  that  forms  the  canvas  for  the 
manifestation  of  human  perfections  ;  sometimes  it  is 
in  human  actions,  relations,  and  sympathies,  that  the 
divine  shines  forth  with  pre-eminent  radiance  and 
majesty.  His  beneficence  is  the  most  strikingly 
displayed  in  his  miracles  ;  his  gentleness  and  con- 
descension are  brought  out  into  the  strongest  relief 
by  them.  There  are  few  of  his  discourses  that  do  not 
refer  to  them.  Indeed,  his  whole  style  of  address 
betrays  the  consciousness  of  a  mission  far  above  that 


JESUS  PROFESSES  MIRACULOUS  POWER.         6l 

of  the  prophets  who  had  gone  before  him.  Some  of 
thena  were  men  of  lofty  bearing  ;  they  stood  undaunted 
before  kings  and  multitudes,  bent  not  to  godless  power, 
and  defied  the  rage  and  insults  of  the  people.  Yet 
who  among  them  ever  dared  to  speak  in  his  own 
name  ?  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,"  is  always  the  prefix 
and  the  refrain  of  their  counsel,  rebuke,  and  denunci- 
ation. Nor  was  it  in  their  own  names,  but  on  the 
authority  of  the  sacred  books,  and  of  honored  names 
of  rabbles  of  preceding  generations,  that  the  scribes 
of  Christ's  time  gave  their  utterances.  But  he,  the 
most  modest  and  humble  of  the  sons  of  men,  never 
appeals  to  prescription.  He  speaks  as  one  who  has 
first-hand  authority,  —  a  right  to  be  believed  and 
obeyed.  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said  by 
them  of  old  time ;  but  I  say  unto  you."  He  con- 
stantly refers  to  his  works  as  the  credentials  of  his 
mission.  Pare  away  his  words  as  you  may,  reject  the 
fourth  Gospel,  and  retain  the  mere  skeleton  of  the 
synoptics,  you  yet  cannot  eliminate  the  tokens  of  a 
higher  than  mere  human  self-consciousness,  —  of  the 
possession  of  such  powers  as  mere  mortal  man  never 
wielded  upon  earth. 

That  Jesus  suffered  it  to  be  believed  that  he  pos- 
sessed such  powers,  that  his  habitual  speech  on  all  oc- 
casions implied  this,  is  an  historical  fact  no  less  certain 
than  are  the  universally  admitted  events  of  his  earthly 
life.  Renan,  indeed,  concedes  this,  and  attempts  to 
apologize  for  it,  sometimes  on  the  ground  that  Jesus 
believed  pious  fraud  essential  to  his  success  ;  some- 
times on  the  ground  that  his  enthusiasm  and  the 


62  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

flattery  of  his  followers,  together  with  some  remark- 
able, yet  easily  accountable  instances  of  his  power 
over  the  imagination  of  diseased  persons  in  his 
presence,  deluded  him  into  a  false  belief  in  his  own 
supernatural  powers.  We  cannot  hang  at  the  same 
time  on  both  the  horns  of  this  dilemma  ;  but  they  may 
be  tested  separately. 

Did  Jesus  pretend  to  supernatural  powers  without 
the  consciousness  of  possessing  them  .''  For  what 
purpose?  For  the  establishment,  Renan  says,  of 
the  purest,  loftiest  morahty  that  man  ever  taught,  — 
for  the  building  up  of  a  kingdom  of  righteousness 
which  shall  last  as  long  as  the  world  lasts.  This 
may  be  a  French  mode  of  producing  such  a  result, 
but  a  mode  utterly  inconceivable  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
mind.  If,  either  as  principal  or  accomplice,  he  lent 
himself  to  such  a  work,  he  strips  himself  of  every  title 
to  our  reverence.  But  if  any  thing  is  certain  about 
him,  it  is  that  he  inculcated  and  practised  the  severest 
virtue,  and  especially  that  he  held  in  holy  scorn  and 
horror  every  kind  of  pretence  and  deception.  What 
was  the  burden  of  his  charge  against  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  }  Not  that  they  were  openly  and  scandal- 
ously wicked  :  they  were  the  farthest  possible  from 
being  so  ;  and  he  always  treated  with  peculiar  gentle- 
ness and  tenderness  those  who  before  the  world  bore 
the  stigma  of  shameful  depravity,  if  they  were  only 
honest  enough  to  confess  it.  It  was  as  hypocrites, 
as  pretending  to  be  what  they  were  not,  that  he  de- 
nounced those  who  sat  in  Moses'  seat  ;  and  in  these 
invectives  there   is   every   mark   of    scathing  moral 


JESUS  NOT  SELF-DELUDED.  63 

indignation.  It  is  manifest  that,  from  the  depths  of 
his  soul,  he  had  the  profoundest  abhorrence  for  aught 
that  was  not  honest,  open,  sincere,  true. 

Try  we  now  the  other  alternative.  "  He  was  self- 
deluded,"  But  his  strength  of  character  is  no  less 
manifest  than  his  purity.  We  see  him  controlling 
both  friendly  and  hostile  multitudes  by  the  mere 
power  of  his  presence.  Majesty  and  meekness  sit 
together  on  his  brow  and  mien  and  spirit.  His 
serenity  and  evenness  of  temper  show  him  to  have 
been  incapable  of  those  waywardnesses  and  weak- 
nesses which  are  wont  to  issue  in  delusive  self- 
exaltation  ;  while,  had  his  self-exaltation  been  imagi- 
nary, it  would  have  tinged  all  the  currents  of  thought 
and  feeling.  But  his  lowliness  of  life  and  spirit 
remained  to  the  last  as  simple  and  genuine  as  when 
he  first  left  his  mother  s  home.  Then,  too,  had  any 
unreal  fancy  been  possible  for  him,  there  was  one 
which  would  of  necessity  have  taken  fast  hold  upon 
him  so  soon  as  he  had  acquired  influence  and  a  fol- 
lowing. His  people,  writhing  and  smarting  under  a 
Gentile  yoke,  and  encouraged  by  misunderstood  inti- 
mations of  the  prophets  (which,  we  believe,  really 
pointed  to  such  a  Messiah  as  Jesus  of  Nazareth), 
were  looking  for  the  advent  of  a  Messiah  who  should 
be  warrior,  king,  and  conqueror,  and  raise  them  from 
beneath  the  heel  above  the  throne  of  the  Caesars.  The 
popular  expectation  early  seized  upon  Jesus  :  he  was 
vehemently  urged  to  assume  this  heroic  part ;  and  had 
there  been  any  weak  place  in  his  character,  along  with 
his  extraordinary  gifts,  it  would  have  been  impossible 


64  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

for  him  not  to  yield  to  this  pressure,  borne  in  upon 
him,  as  it  was,  not  only  from  a  waiting  nation,  but 
from  untold  generations  in  the  past. 

We  cannot,  then,  regard  him  as  either  deceiver  or 
deceived.  His,  therefore,  was  a  life  which  to  those 
conversant  with  him  presented  a  double  aspect,  — 
human  excellencies  and  endowments  which  indicated 
a  unique  nearness  to  and  union  with  the  Supreme 
Being.  Two  of  the  evangelists  were  his  apostles  ; 
we  have  abundant  reason  for  believing  that  the  other 
two  were  his  disciples.  I  have  given  you  what  seems 
to  me  satisfactory  evidence  that  these  men  really  wrote 
the  Gospels.  Yet  those  who  know  all  that  it  was  ever 
possible  for  God  to  do,  and  are  therefore  sure  that 
miracles  can  never  have  been  wrought,  and  that  a 
being  superior  to  themselves  can  never  have  trodden 
the  earth,  set  off  the  alleged  absurdity  of  this  unreal 
conception-  of  a  being  both  the  Son  of  God  and  the 
Son  of  man,  against  the  evidence  of  the  early  compo- 
sition of  the  Gospels.  They  maintain  that,  however 
strong  the  grounds  for  believing  these  books  to  have 
been  written  by  their  reputed  authors,  the  conception 
which  they  embody  must  have  demanded  more  than 
one  generation  for  its  development  from  the  best  and 
noblest  life  that  can  ever  have  been  lived  upon  the 
earth.  We  have,  however,  independent  proof  that 
this  conception  had  reached  its  full  dimensions  long 
before  we  suppose  the  fourth  Gospel  to  have  been 
written,  and  as  early  as  the  earliest  of  the  synoptic 
Gospels.  Eusebius  tells  us  that  the  authorship  by 
St.  Paul  of  thirteen  epistles  ascribed  to  him  in  our 


PAUVS  CONCEPTION  OF  CHRIST.  65 

canon  of  Scripture  had  never  been  called  in  question  ; 
almost  all  sceptical  critics  admit  the  genuineness  of 
ten  out  of  the  thirteen ;  Baur  and  the  Tubingen 
critics  regard  four  of  them  as  having  been  undoubt- 
edly written  by  Paul.  These  four  are  those  to  the 
Romans,  the  Corinthians,  and  the  Galatians.  Neither 
of  these  can  have  been  written  later  than  a.d.  58.  The 
Messianic  conception,  as  attached  to  Jesus,  had  cer- 
tainly reached  its  full  growth  when  they  were  written. 
Even  the  fourth  Gospel  contains  no  more  highly 
colored  picture  of  the  human  perfection  and  the 
divine  sonship  of  Christ  than  Paul  recognizes  in 
almost  every  chapter  of  these  epistles.  Let  me 
quote  a  few  passages.  "  His  Son  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord,  which  was  made  of  the  seed  of  David  according 
to  the  flesh  ;  and  declared  to  be  the  Son  of  God  with 
power,  according  to  the  spirit  of  holiness,  by  the  resur- 
rection from  the  dead."  "  The  light  of  the  knowledge 
of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ."  "  We 
must  all  appear  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ." 
"  Ye  know  the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that 
though  he  was  rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  he  became 
poor."  "  When  the  fulness  of  the  time  was  come, 
God  sent  forth  his  Son,  made  of  a  woman,  made 
under  the  law,  to  redeem  them  that  were  under  the 
law."  "  If  Christ  be  not  risen,  then  is  our  preaching 
vain,  and  your  faith  is  also  vain."  "  Put  ye  on  the 
Lord  Jesus."  *'  To  this  end  Christ  both  died,  and 
rose,  and  revived,*  that  he  might  be  Lord  both  of  the 
dead  and  living."     In  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians,  St. 

*  "  Died  ajid  lived,"  according  to  the  more  correct  reading. 


66  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Paul  describes  his  conferences  with  Peter  and  James, 
from  which  it  appears  that  as  to  every  thing  apper- 
taining directly  to  Christ  he  believed  precisely  what 
they  believed,  and  that  the  only  question  between 
him  and  them  related  to  the  obligation  of  the  Gentile 
converts  to  conform  to  the  Jewish  law.  It  is  evident, 
beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  then,  that  thus  early, 
and  among  those  who  had  been  familiarly  acquainted 
with  Christ  during  his  lifetime  on  earth,  there  existed 
the  very  same  belief  concerning  his  person  and  char- 
acter, which  we  find  drawn  out  in  detail  in  the  Gospels. 
Thus,  there  is  no  reason  whatever  why  the  Gospels 
could  not  have  been  written  at  the  time  when  they 
purport  to  have  been  written,  and  by  the  men  whose 
names  they  bear. 

With  reference  to  the  supernatural  portion  of  the 
Gospel  record,  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  we  see  no 
proof  of  its  ever  having  been  called  in  question  during 
the  early  centuries,  even  by  the  enemies  of  Christian- 
ity. Some  of  my  hearers  know  what  a  demurrer  is 
in  legal  proceedings.  It  is  a  plea  in  which  an  oppos- 
ing counsel  admits  the  facts  alleged  by  his  adversary, 
but  denies  their  relevancy, — maintains  that  they  prove 
nothing  to  the  point.  Now  the  earliest  arguments 
against  the  divine  authority  of  Christ  were  demurrers. 
Such  was  the  statement  recorded  by  the  evangelists, 
*'  He  casteth  out  demons  through  Beelzebub,  the  chief 
of  the  demons."  Such  was  that  of  the  council  assem- 
bled after  the  raising  of  Lazarus,  "  This  man  doeth 
many  miracles  ;  if  we  let  him  thus  alone,  all  men  will 
believe   on   him."     Celsus  and  Porphyry,  it  appears 


THE    GOSPEL  ITS  OWN  EVIDENCE.  67 

from  the  portions  of  their  works  still  preserved,  ad- 
mitted the  supernatural  facts  of  the  Gospel  record, 
but  ascribed  them  to  necromancy.  This  was  the 
favorite,  and,  I  believe,  the  sole  theory  of  Jewish 
teachers  and  writers  for  many  centuries,  vestiges  of 
it  having  lingered  in  the  synagogue  as  late  as  the 
epoch  of  the  Protestant  Reformation.  Now  this  de- 
murrer is,  of  course,  valid  only  with  one  who  can 
adopt  the  theory  of  the  party  that  makes  the  plea. 
It  gives  very  strong  additional  attestation  to  the  facts 
admitted  in  common  by  both  friends  and  enemies. 
It  proves  that  the  persuasion  was  early  seated,  and 
transmitted  from  primitive  times,  that  Jesus  Christ 
performed  works  like  those  which  he  said  proceeded 
from  the  Father,  and  as  to  which  none  in  our  time 
who  believe  them  to  have  been  wrought  can  doubt 
whence  they  came.* 

I  have  in  this  Lecture  sought  to  present  the  charac- 
ter of  Christ  as  portrayed  in  the  Gospels,  as  the  high- 
est possible  evidence  of  their  authenticity.  It  is  a 
character  which,  without  an  original,  could  not  have 
been  conceived  by  the  evangelists  ;  one  for  which 
they  had  neither  the  materials  within  their  reach,  nor 
the  genius  or  culture  requisite  for  its  invention.  As 
an  actual  character,  it  could  not  by  any  possibility 
have  been  formed  by  antecedent  or  surrounding 
influences.  It  was  not  a  natural  development ;  for 
human  virtue  has  not  yet  developed  up  to  its  stand- 
ard. Its  human  side  cannot  possibly  be  authentic, 
unless   its   divine   side   be   equally  authentic.     The 

*  See  Appendix,  note  E. 


6S  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

philosophy  of  our  day  insists  on  our  receiving  only 
proved  facts,  and  the  causes  necessarily  implied  in 
those  facts.  We  accede  to  this  postulate.  We  claim 
only  the  unquestionable  fact  that,  eighteen  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago,  there  lived  a  man  who  left  an 
indelible  impress  on  all  subsequent  ages,  who  inaugu- 
rated a  revolution  in  humanity,  who  started  anew  the 
current  of  the  world's  history,  and  of  whose  moral  per- 
fectness  the  best  since  his  day  have  deemed  themselves 
but  far-off  imitators.  If  our  theory  be  disallowed,  the 
burden  of  proof  rests  on  those  who  reject  it.  Let 
them  show  the  fountain  of  his  purity  in  the  turbid 
waters  of  Judaism  or  heathenism,  or  in  the  highest 
culture  and  the  best  philosophy  of  his  times.  Let 
them  demonstrate  the  sources  of  his  power.  Let 
them,  reveal  to  us  the  secret  by  which  the  emblem 
of  his  ignominy  became  the  symbol  of  all  that  is  great, 
glorious,  and  excellent,  and  the  crucified  felon  grew 
into  the  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords.  Till  they 
can  do  this,  we  will  be  content  with  the  loyal  apostle's 
confession,  "  We  believe  and  are  sure  that  thou  art 
that  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God." 


LECTURE   IV. 

MUTUAL  RESEMBLANCE  OF  THE  SYNOPTIC  GOSPELS. —  THEIR 
SAMENESS  OF  STYLE  AND  LANGUAGE  ACCOUNTED  FOR. — 
GENEALOGIES  IN  MATTHEW'S  AND  LUKE'S  GOSPELS.— 
PROOFS  OF  THE  GENUINENESS  OF  JOHN'S  GOSPEL.  —  ITS 
RELATION  TO  THE  SYNOPTIC  GOSPELS.  —  PROOF  OF  ITS 
ANTIQUITY    FROM   THE    HISTORY    OF    GNOSTICISM. 

T  HAVE  presented  in  previous  Lectures  the  grounds 
■*•  on  which  we  may  affirm  the  genuineness  and 
authenticity  of  our  canonical  Gospels.  But  I  have 
confined  myself  to  considerations  common  to  the 
four.  There  are,  however,  certain  special  objec- 
tions urged  against  the  authorship  of  the  first  three 
Gospels  in  their  present  form  in  the  Apostolic  age, 
and  against  their  editorship  by  any  person  of  first- 
hand authority;  and  there  are  objections  —  which 
demand  our  most  careful  examination  —  to  the  author- 
ship of  the  fourth  Gospel  by  John  or  in  his  lifetime. 
We  will  consider,  first,  the  questions  that  relate  to 
the  synoptic  Gospels. 

These  Gospels  coincide  with  one  another  in  the 
main,  not  only  as  to  their  contents,  but  often  in  lan- 
guage. There  frequently  occur  long  passages  which 
are  the  same,  almost  word  for  word,  in  the  three,  or  in 
two  of  the  three.  There  are  many  passages  in  hear- 
ing which  it  would  be  impossible  for  one  familiar  with 


70  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

the  Scriptures  to  say  from  which  of  the  three  it  was 
taken.  A  common  origin  or  free  copying  from  one 
another,  it  is  said,  alone  can  account  for  these  phe- 
nomena ;  and,  on  either  supposition,  these  Gospels  are 
in  no  sense  three  separate,  independent,  and  original 
authorities.  Even  though  the  names  of  the  authors 
be  correctly  given,  still  if  two  of  them  needed  to  copy 
from  the  other  —  Mark  and  Luke  from  Matthew — we 
have  no  ground  for  the  assurance  that  those  two  had 
personal  knowledge  of  the  facts  they  recorded  ;  or  if 
they  all  copied  from  older  documents,  then  are  they 
all  aHke  unworthy  of  our  implicit  confidence. 

That  they  did  not  copy  from  one  another  appears, 
as  I  have  already  said,  from  the  no  inconsiderable 
amount  of  material  of  the  highest  interest  peculiar  to 
each,  which  it  is  inconceivable  that  the  others,  with 
his  record  before  them,  should  not  have  borrowed. 
This  is  emphatically  the  case  as  to  the  Gospels  of 
Matthew  and  Luke  ;  it  is  also  the  case  with  Mark's 
Gospel  as  compared  with  Matthew's  or  Luke's  alone, 
though  it  contains  little  that  may  not  be  found  sub- 
stantially in  one  of  the  other  two. 

The  hypothesis  more  generally  entertained  is  that 
these  Gospels,  as  they  now  exist,  did  not  originally 
proceed  from  individual  authors ;  that  they  were 
formed  by  successive  accretions,  the  nucleus  of  all 
three  having  been  a  collection  of  the  discourses  and 
parables  of  Christ  with  some  connecting  thread  of 
narrative,  to  which  additions  were  made  by  different 
hands,  in  part  from  documents  of  which  we  see  traces 
in  two  of  the  three,  in  part  from  tradition.     Matthew, 


THE  SYNOPTIC  GOSPELS  NOT  FRAGMENTARY.    7 1 

Mark,  and  Luke  may  or  may  not  have  had  something 
to  do  with  the  first  crude  germs  of  the  Gospels  bear- 
ing their  names :  but  in  their  present  form  they  were 
not  written  or  made  ;  they  grew,  and  are  composed  of 
materials  of  different  dates  and  sources,  and  of  widely 
varying  degrees  of  authority. 

The  first  comment  that  suggests  itself  as  to  this 
hypothesis  is,  that  the  books  themselves  do  not  cor- 
respond to  it.  They  have  not  the  appearance  of  being 
made  up  of  fragments,  nor  do  they  show  the  slightest 
traces  of  having  been  written,  either  of  them,  by  more 
than  one  author.  Each  of  them  has  its  own  peculiar- 
ities of  style,  its  own  modes  of  quotation  from  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures,  its  own  distinguishing  words  and 
phrases,  its  own  marks  of  a  specific  use,  purpose,  or 
destination.  Each  is  a  complete  work  by  itself,  with 
no  breaks  or  abrupt  transitions,  with  no  tokens  of  the 
intrusion  of  heterogeneous  materials  here  and  there. 
Such  materials,  if  they  existed,  would  be  as  easily 
recognized  as  are  boulders  from  a  distant  locality 
among  the  native  rocks  on  which  they  lie.  These 
boulders,  though  borne  to  their  present  site  on  glac- 
iers that  were  broken  up  before  man  trod  the  earth, 
still  show  themselves  out  of  place,  and  will  so  show 
themselves  till  the  end  of  time.  We  have  no  such 
boulder  in  either  of  the  first  three  Gospels  ;  but  we 
have  one  lying  loose  in  our  common  editions  of  the 
Gospel  of  John,  and  I  regard  it  as  of  so  pre-eminent 
value  in  refutation  of  any  patchwork  theory  as  to  the 
composition  of  the  synoptic  Gospels,  as  to  be  worth 
our  special  consideration. 


72  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

I  refer  to  the  narrative  of  the  woman  taken  in 
adultery,*  which  no  respectable  critic  supposes  to 
belong  by  birthright  where  it  stands.  It  not  only 
has  no  connection  with  what  precedes  and  follows 
it,  and  makes  what  follows  it  self-contradictory  and 
absurd,  but,  when  we  leave  it  out,  the  preceding  and 
following  sentences  run  together  at  once,  and  show 
that  they  belong  to  the  same  continuous  narrative. 
Short  as  it  is,  it  contains  several  features  of  style 
unlike  John's,  and  two  designations  —  one  of  a  place, 
one  of  persons  —  which  John  never  uses,  though  very 
often  speaking  of  the  same  place  and  persons.  What 
is  of  still  higher  importance,  it  is  the  only  story  in  the 
four  Gospels  that  is  in  any  degree  repugnant  to  the 
moral  sense  which  they  have  educated,  and  out  of 
keeping  with  their  general  tone  and  spirit ;  the  only 
passage  which  many  who  hold  the  highest  views  of 
inspiration  would  willingly  and  gladly  see  expunged 
from  the  sacred  pages  :  for  it  alone  gives  a  one-sided 
view  of  the  character  of  Christ,  representing  pity  for 
the  sinner  as  almost  lapsing  into  indulgence  for  the 
sin.  This  passage,  with  almost  every  possible  mark 
of  spuriousness  on  its  face,  is  wanting  in  the  four 
oldest  Greek  manuscripts,  and  in  most  of  the  oldest 
extant  manuscripts  of  the  early  versions.  Such  manu- 
scripts as  contain  it  generally  have  it  written  in  the 
margin,  or,  when  inserted  in  the  text,  marked  with  an 
asterisk  or  an  obelisk.  Nor  does  it  always  occupy  the 
same  place,  but  is  sometimes  put  as  an  appendix  at 
the  end  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  and  sometimes  inserted, 

*  John  vii.  53  —  viii.  11.     See  Appendix,  note  F. 


THE  SYNOPTIC  GOSPELS  HOMOGENEOUS.        73 

where  it  is  equally  out  of  place,  near  the  end  of  Luke's 
Gospel.  Thus  there  is  not  the  slightest  probability 
that  it  formed  a  part  of  John's  Gospel  at  the  outset, 
or  was  at  first  intended  to  be  read  as  a  portion  of  it. 
It  was  perhaps  a  garbled  reminiscence  of  some  story 
told  by  St.  John,  or  perhaps  a  tradition,  without  any 
special  authority,  which  some  possessor  of  a  copy  of 
John's  Gospel  wrote  in  the  margin  of  his  copy,  where 
he  could  find  room  to  insert  it.  A  copyist  of  this  copy 
transcribed  it  in  the  same  place,  thinking  that  there 
was  some  good  reason  why  it  should  be  there.  Thus 
it  passed  from  copy  to  copy,  till  at  length  it  was 
taken  into  the  text  as  a  passage  that  might  have 
been  omitted  by  mistake,  but  then  not  without  a 
mark  to  indicate  a  doubt  whether  it  belonged  there 
or  not. 

I  have  introduced  this  passage  as  of  the  highest 
importance  in  the  question  now  under  discussion.  It 
shows  how  utterly  impossible  it  is  so  to  incorporate 
alien  materials  that  they  shall  seem  of  the  same  fabric 
with  the  work  into  which  they  are  inserted.  Yet,  on 
the  supposition  of  the  gradual  growth  of  the  first 
three  Gospels  from  a  common  original  document,  this 
process  must  have  been  performed  many  times  over 
by  the  hands  of  many  different  authors,  without  leav- 
ing the  slightest  trace  of  displacements,  rough  edges, 
or  awkward  joinings,  where  new  fragments  were  in- 
serted, —  without  any  tokens  of  diversity  of  style  or 
inconsistency  of  representation.  The  existing  marks 
of  homogeneousness  in  diction  and  sentiment,  of  the 
continuous  work  of  a  single  hand,  in  each  of  these 

4 


74  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Gospels,  could  not  by  any  possibility  have  been  coun- 
terfeited. 

Yet  the  coincidences  of  which  I  have  spoken  are 
so  close  and  so  peculiar  a  feature  of  these  books,  that 
those  who  call  their  genuineness  in  question  have  a 
right  to  claim  an  explanation  of  them.  On  examina- 
tion we  find,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  coincidence, 
close  as  it  is,  is  such  as  would  result  from  common 
recollections  rather  than  from  the  same  manuscript. 
There  are,  in  every  instance,  slight  verbal  variations, 
such  as  would  undoubtedly  be  observable  were  any 
three  of  us  to  repeat  from  memory  the  parable  of  the 
talents,  or  that  of  the  prodigal  son.  The  coincidence 
is  closer  in  the  discourses  and  sayings  of  Jesus  than 
in  the  mere  narrative,  as  if  each  of  the  three  had  been 
at  special  pains  to  give  a  correct  report  of  what  the 
Master  had  said.  The  coincidence  is  most  frequent 
and  continuous  between  Mark  and  Luke,  who  often 
agree  in  deviating  from  Matthew,  alike  in  the  report 
of  words,  in  the  details  of  events,  and  in  the  order  in 
which  they  occurred. 

As  for  their  agreement  in  reporting  the  discourses 
and  parables  of  Jesus,  it  was  but  natural  that  each 
should  have  made  it  his  prime  endeavor  not  only  to' 
put  into  writing  the  substance  of  what  was  said,  but 
to  reproduce,  so  far  as  they  could  be  rendered  into 
another  language,  the  very  words  that  had  been 
uttered.  And  is  it  not  conceivable  that  Jesus  pur- 
posely prepared  the  way  for  reports  thus  minutely 
literal.^  We  have  but  little  of  what  he  said  trans- 
mitted to  us,  and  probably  this  little,  embodying  as  it 


OJiAL   GOSPEL. 


IS 


does  the  fundamental  truths  and  laws  of  religion  and 
ethics,  was  repeated  more  than  once  by  Jesus  in  sub- 
stantially the  same  forms,  so  as  to  penetrate  by  reitera- 
tion the  somewhat  slow  and  hard  minds  of  the  hearers, 
and  to  make  an  indelible  impression  on  their  memory. 
For  nearly  three  years,  at  the  least,  after  the  depart- 
ure of  Jesus,  the  apostles  and  their  most  intimate 
friends  remained  together  at  Jerusalem.  They  met 
almost  daily  at  one  another's  houses,  for  conference 
as  to  the  great  interests  devolved  upon  them  by  their 
Master,  and  for  such  propagandism  as  was  invited  by 
the  curiosity  of  the  inhabitants  or  of  strangers  in  the 
city.  Their  chief  employment  at  these  meetings 
must  have  been  to  refresh  their  own  recollections,  and 
to  instruct  those  who  met  with  them,  by  rehearsing 
what  Jesus  had  said  and  done.  Except  as  to  the  last 
scenes  of  his  life,  in  which  their  tender  and  intense 
interest  could  never  have  waned,  their  discourse  would 
have  dwelt  chiefly  on  his  ministry  in  Galilee  ;  for 
they  must  have  always  or  often  had  those  present  who 
had  seen  and  heard  Jesus  in  Jerusalem,  but  not  in 
Galilee,  and  much  of  what  had  taken  place  with  Jesus 
or  had  been  said  by  him  at  Jerusalem,  prior  to  his  last 
passover,  may  have  been  on  visits  in  which  he  was 
accompanied  by  none  or  by  only  one  of  the  apostles. 
It  must  have  been  a  foremost  aim  with  them  to  recall 
the  very  words  that  had  fallen  from  their  Master's 
lips,  and  they  would  have  helped  one  another's  memo- 
ries toward  this  end,  so  that  when  they  came  to 
repeat  his  discourses  separately,  their  verbal  diver- 
sities would  have  been  few  and  slight.     Then,  too, 


>j6  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

though  without  any  special  painstaking,  they  would 
have  fallen  into  very  much  the  same  way  of  relating 
the  incidents  of  their  Master's  life  ;  for  while  persons 
of  taste  and  culture  have  each  his  own  method  of  tell- 
ing the  same  story,  you  must,  I  think,  have  noticed 
the  strong  tendency  among  comparatively  uncultivated 
persons,  in  telling  a  story,  to  copy  one  another's  pre- 
cise form  and  style  of  narrative.  There  would  thus 
have  grown  up  among  the  disciples,  before  they 
began  to  be  scattered,  an  oral  Gospel  common  to  them 
all,  the  chief  staple  of  their  preaching  when  they  were 
dispersed,  and  to  our  three  evangelists,  especially  to 
Mark  and  Luke,  the  germ  of  their  written  Gospels. 

Mark,  we  know,  must  have  been  intimate  with  this 
company  of  disciples  ;  and,  even  were  he  not  so,  Peter, 
whose  amanuensis  Mark  is  believed  to  have  been, 
held  the  first  place  among  the  authors  of  this  oral 
Gospel,  nor  is  there  any  thing  in  Mark's  Gospel  which 
we  cannot  easily  conceive  of  his  having  learned  from 
Peter. 

Matthew,  as  one  of  the  original  twelve,  had  the 
best  first-hand  opportunities  of  information,  so  that  he 
would  have  been  likely  to  possess  some  materials 
peculiarly  his  own ;  and  as  he  was,  so  far  as  we  know, 
the  only  one  of  the  twelve  whose  business  would  have 
led  him  to  the  ready  handling  of  writing  materials,  it 
is  by  no  means  improbable  that  he  used  memoranda 
taken  from  time  to  time,  which  would  have  been  sub- 
stantially, and  often  verbally,  in  accordance  with  the 
oral  Gospel  which  he  helped  to  make,  yet  would  have 
covered  wider  ground. 


THE  SYNOPTIC  GOSPELS  ACCOUNTED  FOR.      77 

Luke  alone  relates  the  mission  of  the  seventy,  and 
he  gives  a  series  of  parables  not  recorded  elsewhere. 
If  he  was  one  of  the  seventy,  this  may  be  accounted  for ; 
for  it  would  appear  from  his  narrative  that  the  mis- 
sion of  the  seventy  took  place,  and  that  these  parables 
were  uttered  after  their  return,  while  the  twelve  were 
absent  on  their  mission.  Luke's  introductory  chap- 
ters are  peculiar  to  him ;  there  is  no  sufficient  critical 
ground  for  supposing  them  not  to  have  formed  a  part 
of  the  Gospel  as  first  written  ;  and  we  may  account 
for  these  details  of  the  infancy  and  childhood  of  Jesus 
by  the  author's  intimacy  with  Cleopas,  a  near  kinsman 
of  the  mother  of  Jesus,  —  an  intimacy  proved  by  the 
narrative  of  the  walk  to  Emmaus  ;  for  if  Luke  was 
not  —  as  I  believe  he  was  —  the  actual  companion  of 
Cleopas  on  that  occasion,  it  is  evident  that  he  heard 
the  story  from  one  who  was  present,  and,  if  so,  cer- 
tainly from  the  one  whom  he  expressly  names. 

We  thus  see  that  the  coincidences  and  the  differ- 
ences of  the  first  three  Gospels  are  precisely  such  as 
may  be  accounted  for  by  recorded  and  admitted  facts 
with  reference  to  their  reputed  authors.  In  our  time, 
or  in  any  time,  three  persons  who  had  spent  two  or 
three  years  in  daily  intercourse,  talking  over  the  same 
portions  of  their  common  experience,  would,  in  record- 
ing that  experience,  coincide  with  one  another  fully  as 
much  and  as  often  as  Matthew,  Mark,  and  Luke  coin- 
cide, while  each  would  show  somewhat  of  his  own 
peculiar  individuality,  and  each  would  probably  have 
some  things  to  tell  which  the  others  had  not  known 
or  did  not  recollect  when  writing. 


78  CHRISTIAATITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

There  is  one  discrepancy,  striking  and  peculiarly 
open  to  cavil,  between  Matthew  and  Luke,  which 
merits  our  special  consideration.  I  refer  to  that 
between  their  genealogies  of  Joseph,  the  reputed 
father  of  Jesus.  In  Matthew's  Gospel,  Joseph  is  the 
son  of  Jacob ;  in  Luke's,  the  son  of  Heli ;  and  there 
are  numerous  other  differences  between  the  two  lines 
by  which  the  ancestry  of  Joseph  is  traced  back  to 
David.  The  first  thing  to  be  said  with  reference  to 
these  genealogies  is  that  it  is  inconceivable  that  either 
of  them  should  be  a  forgery.  A  genealogy  is  the  most 
unlikely  of  all  things  to  be  forged  by  simple,  unimagi- 
native writers  such  as  Matthew  and  Luke,  if  they 
wrote  these  Gospels,  evidently  were.  Nor  yet  does 
the  mythical  theory  or  any  theory  of  gradual  elabora- 
tion account  for  their  existence.  They  must  both 
have  been  copied  from  actual  documents,  and  from 
documents  supposed  to  be  genuine. 

In  the  next  place,  as  descent  from  David,  at  a  time 
when  the  Messiah  was  expected  from  among  his  pos- 
terity, must  have  been  a  dearly  cherished  prerogative, 
if  there  were  two  ways  in  which  such  descent  could  be 
reckoned,  tables  conformed  to  both  modes  would  have 
probably  been  in  the  possession  of  members  of  the 
family.  That  there  were  two  such  modes  among  the 
Hebrews  is  rendered  certain  by  the  levirate  law,  ac- 
cording to  which,  if  an  elder  married  brother  died 
childless,  the  next  brother  married  his  widow,  and 
the  first  child  of  the  marriage  was  accounted  as  the 
son  of  the  deceased  brother.  That  this  custom,  if  it 
no  longer  had  the  force  of  an  imperative  law,  was  not 


GENUINENESS  OF  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL.        79 

obsolete,  may  be  inferred  from  the  case  of  the  seven 
brethren  propounded  to  Jesus  by  the  Sadducees.  Now, 
if  we  suppose  Jacob  the  actual  father  of  Joseph,  and 
Heli  Jacob's  elder  brother  by  the  same  mother,  but  by 
a  different  father,  we  have  the  discrepancy  fully  ex- 
plained. Even  without  pressing  this  explanation,  we 
can  conceive  that  there  were  among  the  Jews,  as  we 
know  there  were  among  both  the  Greeks  and  the 
Romans,  other  modes  of  legal  adoption,  by  which  a 
man  might  be  in  the  eye  of  the  law  the  son  of  a  per- 
son other  than  his  actual  father.  The  phraseology  of 
the  two  genealogies  not  only  admits,  but,  rightly  under- 
stood, necessitates  the  supposition  of  an  actual  descent 
in  the  one  case,  a  legal  descent  in  the  other.  Matthew 
evidently  means  to  give  the  actual  descent.  Luke 
expressly  designates  his  as  the  legal  genealogy,  and 
why  should  he  have  so  designated  it,  unless  he  was 
aware  that  it  diverged  from  the  line  of  actual  descent } 
The  words,  awkwardly  rendered  in  our  translation 
"  being,  as  was  stij^posed*  the  son  of  Joseph,  which 
was  the  son  of  Heli,"  literally  mean  "  being,  as  he  was 
legally  reckoned,  the  son  of  Joseph,  which  was  the  son 
of  Heli."  Had  this  obvious  and  unquestionable  mean- 
ing of  the  mistranslated  word  been  taken  into  the 
account,  much  needless  questioning  and  hypothesis 
might  have  been  spared. 

We  will  now  give  our  attention  to  the  peculiar 
objections  urged  against  the  genuineness  of  the  (so- 
called)  Gospel  of  John.  It  is  alleged  that  the  con- 
ception of  Jesus  in  the  fourth  Gospel  differs  radically 

*'S2f  evofil^eTO. 


8o  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

from  that  of  the  other  evangelists  ;  that  this  Gospel 
belongs,  as  regards  its  Messianic  features,  to  a  later 
age  ;  and  that  it  bears  indubitable  traces  of  opinions 
that  cannot  have  attained  shape  and  currency  in  the 
lifetime  of  the  apostles. 

I  would  remind  you,  in  the  first  place,  that  the  evi- 
dence of  the  antiquity  of  the  fourth  Gospel  from  the 
testimony  of  the  early  Christian  writers  is  at  least 
equal  to  that  in  behalf  of  the  other  three,  and  in  one 
respect  even  superior  ;  for  the  accounts  which  Irenaeus 
gives  of  Polycarp's  intercourse  with  John  enhance  very 
essentially  the  weight  and  authority  of  his  full  and  un- 
doubted recognition  of  the  fourth  Gospel  as  John's. 

Here  it  is  pertinent  to  ask.  If  John  did  not  write  this 
Gospel,  who  could  have  written  it  1  Except  the  last 
two  verses,  —  which  were  professedly  and  manifestly 
by  another  hand,  probably  by  loving  disciples,  through 
whose  agency,  in  his  extreme  old  age  or  after  his  death, 
the  book  was  put  into  circulation,  —  it  bears  through- 
out the  tokens  of  a  single  author  :  the  same  style  ;  the 
same  habitual  words  and  phrases  ;  the  same,  often 
peculiar,  designations  for  the  same  persons,  places, 
and  objects.  The  internal  evidence  on  this  point  is 
so  clear  and  strong  that,  among  all  the  theories  with 
regard  to  the  fourth  Gospel,  that  of  its  composition 
by  two  or  more  authors  has  seldom  been  maintained. 

This  Gospel  is  the  most  remarkable  book  in  the 
world.  Whether  it  be  fiction  or  fact,  there  is  in  all 
human  literature  no  narrative  which  so  blends  majesty 
and  tenderness,  sublimity  and  pathos,  as  that  of  the 
raising  of  Lazarus.     The  discourses  ascribed  to  Jesus 


INTERIORNESS  OF  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL.        8 1 

in  controversy  with  his  Jewish  adversaries  manifest  as 
much  dialectic  skill  as  moral  energy,  and  are  on  a 
level,  both  in  their  intellectual  and  their  spiritual 
aspects,  with  the  highest  Messianic  conceptions  of 
the  Christian  Church.  The  communings  and  inter- 
cessions at  the  paschal  table  are  an  unexhausted 
treasury  of  holy  thought  and  heavenward  aspiration, 
the  loss  of  which  would  bereave  Christendom  more 
sorely  than  the  extinction  of  all  that  has  been  written 
in  a  similar  vein  far  the  last  seventeen  centuries,  and 
especially  would  rob  the  dying  and  those  who  survive 
them  in  sorrow  of  peace,  consolation,  and  hope,  which 
not  even  the  glowing  words  of  hallowed  genius  and 
poetry  to  which  they  have  given  tone  and  spirit  could 
begin  to  replace.  Even  in  the  working  up  of  materials 
common  to  the  four,  there  is,  if  you  will  pardon  the 
word  for  the  thought,  an  interiorness,  a  vividness  of 
realization,  not  manifested  by  the  synoptics  ;  in  fine, 
that  closest  approach  of  biography  to  autobiography, 
which  occurs  only  when  the  biographer  and  his  sub- 
ject are  associated  by  a  spiritual  twinship,  in  which 
the  author  of  the  fourth  Gospel  may  be  contrasted 
rather  than  compared  with  the  other  evangelists.  As 
a  single  instance  out  of  several  that  might  be  selected, 
I  will  refer  you  to  the  narratives  of  our  Saviour's  res- 
urrection. Though  this  event  can  never  be  forgotten 
in  the  last  offices  of  piety  over  the  mortal  form  of  one 
who  has  fallen  asleep  in  Jesus,  it  seems  more  natural 
and  appropriate  to  read  on  such  an  occasion  from  Paul's 
glorious  chapter  on  the  resurrection  than  from  the  ac- 
count given  of  that  event  by  either  of  the  synoptics, 


82  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

who  describe  the  fact  as  careful  historiographers  and 
devout  and  grateful  recipients  of  the  blessedness  with 
which  it  is  fraught,  yet  rather  as  those  who  are  fully- 
persuaded  of  it  than  as  conscious  partakers  in  it.  But 
the  spirit  of  the  risen  Jesus  so  throbs  in  every  trait  of 
the  successive  acts  of  that  sublime  drama  as  portrayed 
in  the  fourth  Gospel,  that  the  sacred  volume  contains 
no  words  more  congenial  than  the  very  words  of  that 
narrative,  with  the  moment  when  kindred  are  gathered 
for  the  last  time  around  the  lifeless  body  from  which 
the  soul  has  passed  on  to  its  Redeemer. 

The  fourth  Gospel  has  had  more  influence  upon  the 
civilized  world  than  any  and  all  other  books.  Paul, 
indeed,  by  the  obscurity,  for  the  most  part  needless, 
which  has  been  suffered  to  hang  over  his  epistles,  has 
led  to  a  larger  amount  of  speculation,  often  worthless, 
—  of  system-building,  often  with  the  "  wood,  hay,  and 
stubble,"  of  which  he  speaks  contemptuously.  But 
in  the  nurture  of  purity,  sanctity,  and  loftiness  of 
thought,  soul,  and  life ;  in  the  unifying  of  the  heart 
of  Christendom  through  and  with  the  heart  of  Christ ; 
in  the  creation  of  the  men  in  whom  the  beauty  of 
holiness  glows  with  a  radiance  which  distance  cannot 
dim  or  the  lapse  of  years  obscure  ;  in  the  inspiration  of 
the  most  beneficently  influential  Christian  literature, 
and  especially  of  those  sacred  lyrics  which  have  been 
at  once  vehicle  and  nurse  of  the  highest  devotion  of 
all  the  Christian  ages,  —  the  Gospel  of  John  (so-called) 
has  held  the  foremost  place,  to  such  a  degree  that  its 
suppression,  while  it  would  still  have  left  more  of 
spiritual  worth  and  power  in  Christ  and  his  Gospel 


PRE-EMINENCE   OF   THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL.       ^2> 

than  in  the  whole  world  beside,  would  have  circum- 
scribed and  attenuated  the  growth  and  working  force 
of  Christianity,  and  have  robbed  the  Church  of  a  very 
large  proportion  of  its  beauty,  grandeur,  and  glory. 
There  is,  indeed,  a  low  naturalistic  view  of  Christ, 
which,  not  utterly  rejecting  him  as  the  Sent  of  God, 
admits  as  little  of  him  and  in  him  as  it  can,  which 
would  find  confirmation  in  repudiating  the  fourth 
Gospel,  and  which  would  be  equally  glad  to  expur- 
gate the  synoptics  and  St.  Paul.  But  even  those  who 
occupy  this  sunken  plane,  as  they  have  grown  more 
spiritual,  have  grown  into  the  love  of  the  fourth 
Gospel  ;  while  all  the  saints  of  inmost  initiation  — 
those  in  and  through  whom  the  Church  has  shone 
with  the  purest  lustre  and  wrought  with  the  divinest 
efficacy  —  have  found  their  choicest  nutriment  in  the 
bread  that  has  come  down  to  them  from  heaven  in  this 
wonderful  book. 

Who  wrote  it }  If  it  be  true  ;  if  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
was  all  that  it  describes  and  relates,  and  the  record 
was  written  by  his  nearest  friend,  —  we  can  account  for 
its  authorship,  and  can  believe  that  the  writer,  though 
a  pure  and  holy  man,  was  but  a  man  of  his  time, 
brought  into  intimate  communion  with  him  who  is 
**  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever."  If,  however, 
this  is  not  a  literal  biography,  but  a  semi-mythical 
narrative  and  a  series  of  monologues  founded  on  the 
life  and  sayings  of  a  wise  and  virtuous,  but  illiterate 
Galilean  peasant,  then  we  have  a  far  greater  than 
Jesus  in  its  author.  We  have  in  him  the  true  founder 
of  the  Christian  Church  ;  for  it  is  built  and  rests  this 


84  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

day  on  no  other  Christ  than  the  Christ,  real  or  imag- 
inary, of  the  fourth  Gospel.  Were  this  Gospel  proved 
to  be  a  fiction,  the  most  advanced  Christians  of  every 
section  of  the  Church  would  exclaim,  "  They  have 
taken  away  my  Lord,  and  I  know  not  where  they 
have  laid  him."  Who  was  this  wonderful  man, 
this  transcendent  creator,  this  unparalleled  religious 
genius  ?  As  we  run  over  the  list  of  Christian  writers 
for  the  century  succeeding  the  apostolic  age,  there  is 
not  one  of  them  whom  we  can  pronounce  equal  to  such 
an  achievement, —  not  one  of  them  who  is  above  medioc- 
rity. The  few  remains  of  the  apostolic  fathers  fall  very 
far  below  the  mark.  We  should  have  to  come  down 
to  Augustine  or  Jerome  before  we  could  find  one  who 
could  even  be  imagined  capable  of  such  an  endeavor  ; 
and  they  and  their  most  gifted  successors  breathe 
more  than  all  else  the  very  inspiration  caught  from 
this  record,  and  but  for  this  would  have  left  behind 
them  far  less  illustrious  names  than  they  bear.  It  is 
impossible  that  such  a  writer  should  not  have  made 
his  ineffaceable  mark  on  his  own  time,  and  left  a  name 
for  the  admiration  and  reverence  of  all  times.  The 
apostle  John  is  the  only  man  of  the  first  two  centuries, 
the  traditions  of  whose  life  and  character  represent 
him  as  adequate  to  this  work  ;  and  if  he  was  the 
author,  we  know  that  his  record  is  true. 

Even  Renan,  whose  candor  we  have  frequent  rea- 
son to  praise,  admits  a  large  Johannine  element  in  the 
fourth  Gospel,  and  supposes  that  it  was  compiled  by 
John's  disciples,  in  great  part  from  their  recollections  or 
memoranda  of  his  teachings.     But  no  one  who  reads 


JESUS   THE  SAME  IN  ALL   THE  GOSPELS.         85 

this  book  with  an  unbiassed  mind  can  suppose  it  a 
composition  by  prentice  hands  ;  a  compilation  ;  a  work 
of  other  than  single  authorship  ;  an  infiltration  through 
secondary  channels.  Whoever  wrote  it  had  either 
seen  and  heard  what  he  records,  or  else  had  a  vivid- 
ness of  conception  and  a  power  of  realistic  description 
of  his  imaginings  surpassing  all  that  has  been  em- 
bodied in  the  literature  of  the  ages. 

But  it  is  said  that  the  Jesus  of  the  fourth  Gospel  is 
an  entirely  different  character  from  the  Jesus  of  the 
synoptics.  So  far,  however,  is  this  from  being  the 
case  that  the  most  that  we  can  say  is  that  he  is  all  of 
their  Jesus,  and  more.  The  human  traits  are  the  same 
in  the  four.  The  narrative,  so  far  as  it  is  parallel,  is 
coincident,  the  only  difference  being  that  the  fourth 
Gospel  bears  the  marks  of  a  closer  intimacy,  a  more 
realizing  sympathy  with  its  subject,  as  must  have  been 
the  case  if  the  author  held  that  peculiar  relation  of 
Christ's  confidential  friend  in  which  he  professes  to 
stand.  But  is  Jesus  even  more  or  greater  in  the 
fourth  Gospel  than  in  the  other  three  t  Have  we 
not  in  them  intimations  of  all  that  is  more  fully 
developed  in  the  fourth  }  As  regards  outward  inci- 
dent, the  raising  of  Lazarus  seems  to  us  unique,  from 
the  intense  vividness  and  lifelikeness  of  the  narrative. 
But  can  it  have  presented  a  grander  spectacle,  or  im- 
plied a  more  godlike  sympathy  or  a  more  sovereign 
power  in  the  Conqueror  of  death,  than  the  scene  at 
the  gates  of  Nain,  when  Jesus  meets  the  funeral  pro- 
cession, sees  the  widow  in  her  desolate  agony  follow- 
ing her  only  son  to  the  grave,  arrests  the  bier,  raises 


86  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

the  lifeless  form,  and  gives  the  youth  to  his  mother's 
embrace,  while  for  the  wild  wail  of  the  mourners  rises 
the  glad  shout,  "  God  hath  visited  and  redeemed  his 
people "  ?  Then,  as  to  the  alleged  peculiarities  in 
John's  representations  of  the  exalted  personality  of 
Jesus,  are  they  peculiar  to  him  ?  Have  we  not  as  full 
and  emphatic,  though  generally  less  detailed,  indica- 
tions of  them  in  the  synoptics  ?  Nay,  one  of  the 
loftiest  of  these  representations  is  drawn  out  by  Mat- 
thew with  an  amplitude  far  transcending  that  of  the 
fourth  Gospel.  In  the  latter  Jesus  repeatedly  speaks  of 
himself  as  the  Judge  of  the  world  ;  but  what  are 
those  dogmatic  statements  compared  with  the  dis- 
course recorded  by  Matthew,  in  which  the  Son  of 
man  sits  on  the  throne  of  his  glory,  and  all  nations 
are  gathered  before  him,  and  divided  as  a  shepherd 
divides  the  sheep  from  the  goats,  the  sheep  on  his 
right  hand,  the  goats  on  his  left  ?  What  higher  claims 
does  Jesus  make  for  himself  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  than 
when  he  says,  "  All  things  are  delivered  unto  me  of 
my  Father  ;  "  "  All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven 
and  on  earth  ; "  "  Hereafter  shall  ye  see  the  Son  of 
man  sitting  on  the  right  hand  of  power,  and  coming 
in  the  clouds  of  heaven  ; "  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway, 
even  to  the  end  of  the  world  "  ?  Nor  is  the  promise 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  which  fills  so  large  a  space  in  the 
fourth  Gospel,  wanting  in  the  synoptics.  "  Take  no 
thought  how  or  what  ye  shall  speak ;  for  it  shall  be 
given  you  in  the  same  hour  what  ye  shall  speak  ;  for 
it  is  not  ye  that  speak,  but  the  spirit  of  your  Father 
that  speaketh  in  you  ; "  and  again,  "  Tarry  ye  in  the 


DISCOURSES  IN  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL.  87 

city  of  Jerusalem  until  ye  be  endued  with  power  from 
on  high." 

Yet  it  must  be  admitted  that  there  are  in  the  fourth 
Gospel  numerous  discourses  of  Jesus,  coinciding  in 
sentiment  with  his  utterances  in  the  synoptics,  yet 
pitched,  so  to  speak,  on  a  higher  key,  more  abstract, 
more  spiritual,  dwelling  with  greater  length  and  with 
more  minuteness  of  specification  on  his  own  person- 
ality, his  relations  to  the  Father,  and  his  mission  as 
the  world's  Redeemer.  But  these  discourses,  in  the 
first  place,  contain  nothing  which  the  Jesus  of  the 
synoptics  might  not  have  said  if  he  was  what  they 
represent  him  to  have  been.  Then,  the  first  three 
Gospels,  confessedly  in  general  circulation  when  the 
fourth  Gospel  was  written,  were  doubtless  in  the 
possession  of  its  author ;  and,  whatever  our  theory 
of  its  composition,  it  was  manifestly  his  purpose,  not 
so  much  to  cover  the  same  ground  as  to  supply  their 
deficiencies.  Accordingly,  except  in  the  events  of  the 
crucifixion  and  resurrection,  which  obviously  could  not 
have  been  omitted  in  any  biography  of  Jesus,  he  hardly 
relates  any  incident  which  they  record,  unless  in  con- 
nection with  some  discourse  which  they  had  omitted. 
Then,  too,  it  is  perfectly  manifest  that  the  first  three 
Gospels  were  written  with  a  missionary  purpose,  ad- 
dressed to  those  who  were  strangers  to  the  events 
recorded  ;  and  they  would  naturally  have  contained 
only  such  of  the  discourses  of  Jesus  as  could  have 
been  readily  understood  by  those  who  had  not  yet 
been  initiated  into  the  rudiments  of  the  new  religion. 
For  such  a  purpose  a  large  portion  of  the  contents  of 


88  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

the  fourth  Gospel  would  have  been  not  only  inappro- 
priate, but  even  a  hinderance  to  the  reception  of  the 
teachings  which  were  more  nearly  level  with  the  un- 
instructed  mind.  It  is  equally  manifest  that  the 
fourth  Gospel  was  designed  for  readers  who  were 
already  Christians  ;  who  had,  in  St.  Paul's  expressive 
figure,  been  fed  with  milk  till  they  were  able  to  bear 
meat.  Perhaps,  too,  many  of  the  discourses  recorded 
in  the  fourth  Gospel  were  not  heard  by  the  apostles 
collectively.  This  Gospel  gives  intimations  of  several 
visits  to  Jerusalem  not  mentioned  by  the  synoptics. 
On  these  occasions  John  may  have  been  his  Master's 
only  friendly  companion. 

But,  after  all,  may  not  a  difference  of  receptivity 
among  the  members  of  the  sacred  college  have  been 
a  prime  reason  and  a  sufficient  reason  for  the  differ- 
ence between  the  synoptics  and  the  fourth  Gospel  t 
We  will  suppose  a  strictly  parallel  case  with  regard  to 
Socrates.  We  will  leave  Plato  out  of  the  account  ;  for 
his  Socrates  is  Socrates  plus  Plato.  He  undoubtedly 
meant  to  be  understood  as  often  using  the  name  of 
Socrates  as  an  interlocutor,  in  dialogues  for  which  his 
own  thought  furnished  the  whole  material.  But  in 
Xenophon  we  undoubtedly  have  a  faithful  biographer 
of  Socrates.  He  occupied  toward  the  great  philoso- 
pher the  position,  first  of  a  disciple,  and  then  of  an 
intimate,  admiring,  and  loving  friend  ;  in  fine,  very 
much  the  relation  which  John  is  said  to  have  sustained 
to  Jesus.  He  was  a  man  of  high  culture,  and  he  gives 
numerous  specimens  of  his  master's  discussions  of 
philosophical  subjects.     Now  suppose  that  three  men 


PAUL'S  CONCEPTION  OF  CHRIST.  89 

of  Athens,  not  educated  men,  not  philosophers,  had 
become  similarly  attached  to  Socrates,  so  that  they 
followed  him  round  from  place  to  place,  deposited  the 
good  things  that  fell  from  his  lips  by  the  wayside  in 
faithful  memory,  were  profoundly  interested  when  he 
talked  on  common  subjects  to  plain,  simple  people 
like  themselves,  but  when  he  entered  on  a  formal 
discussion  or  an  elaborate  argument,  though  they 
delighted  to  listen,  yet  remembered  very  little.  If 
these  men  had  written  their  several  books  of  "  Memo- 
rabilia" of  Socrates,  their  books  would  have  borne  about 
the  same  relation  to  Xenophon's  "  Memorabilia  "  which 
the  synoptic  Gospels  bear  to  the  fourth  Gospel.  They 
would  have  omitted  a  large  part  of  what  Xenophon 
has  recorded,  because  if  they  heard  it  with  the  out- 
ward ear,  they  had  not  taken  it  in  ;  it  was  above  the 
standard  of  their  culture,  above  their  receptivity.  If 
St.  Paul  had  been  among  the  personal  followers  of 
Christ,  he  would  undoubtedly  have  written  a  Gospel 
like  John's  ;  but  we  may  reasonably  believe  that  such 
a  record  would  have  transcended  the  ability  of  Mat- 
thew, Mark,  and  Luke. 

Here  let  me  remind  you,  in  passing,  of  what  I  dwelt 
upon  more  fully  in  a  former  Lecture,  with  regard  to 
all  the  Gospels,  that,  though  Paul  gives  and  naturally 
would  have  given  in  his  epistles  few  biographical 
details,  his  conception  of  Christ  is  not  one  whit  less 
grand  and  lofty  than  that  of  the  fourth  Gospel  ;  and 
his  epistles  were  written  considerably  earlier  than  the 
earliest  date  assigned  to  that  Gospel.  The  conception, 
therefore,  was  full-grown  in  the  Church  in  John's  life- 

^^  Of  THB*^^ 


90  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

time  ;  consequently  there  is  no  need,  in  order  to  leave 
time  for  its  development,  of  fixing  a  later  date  for  the 
Gospel. 

Another  ground  on  which  the  Johannine  or  early- 
origin  of  the  fourth  Gospel  has  been  denied  is  the 
alleged  tendency  to  Gnosticism,  according  to  some 
critics,  at  least  the  undoubted  reference  to  it,  in  the 
proem  to  the  Gospel,  which,  it  is  said,  implies  a  date 
later  than  the  close  of  the  first  century.  That  there 
are  allusions  to  Gnostic  notions  in  the  proem  seems  to 
me  certain  beyond  a  question  ;  but  it  is  in  antagonism, 
not  in  acquiescence.  Yet  these  allusions  do  not  im- 
pair the  validity  of  the  date  traditionally  assigned  to 
the  Gospel.  Gnosticism  has  not,  indeed,  a  defined 
place  in  the  history  of  the  Church  till  early  in  the 
second  century  ;  but  it  must  in  its  essence,  from 
the  very  nature  of  the  case,  have  been  coeval  with  the 
earliest  propagation  of  Christianity.  A  mould  already 
existed  for  it  in  the  Zoroastrian  dualism  and  the  sys- 
tems of  aeons,  which  prevailed  throughout  Asia  Minor, 
had  become  largely  incorporated  with  the  Neo-Plato- 
nism  of  Alexandria,  and  had  gained  some  measure  of 
currency  in  every  part  of  the  Roman  Empire.  When 
Christianity  was  nominally  embraced  by  the  adherents 
of  this  philosophy,  it  lent  its  sacred  names  to  their 
pre-existing  notions  ;  and  thus  was  formed  a  strange 
compound  in  which  an  apostle  could  have  recognized 
only  the  faintest  vestiges  of  his  own  spiritual  faith. 
It  is  certain  that  Gnostic  errors  are  referred  to  in  the 
Epistles  to  the  Ephesians  and  the  Colossians,  the 
Pauhne  authorship  of  which  there  is  no  good  reason 


THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL  AND  GNOSTICISM. 


91 


for  doubting,*  and  for  which  even  those  who  deny 
their  genuineness  assign  a  date  earHer  than  that 
which  we  would  claim  for  the  fourth  Gospel.  Cerin- 
thus  was  undoubtedly  a  Gnostic,  and  ecclesiastical 
tradition  that  bears  all  the  marks  of  authenticity 
represents  him  to  have  been  contemporary  with  St. 
John,  and  to  have  been  regarded  by  the  venerable 
apostle  as  an  atrocious  perverter  of  the  truth.  Ire- 
naeus  expressly  says  that  John  had  the  doctrines  of  the 
Gnostics  in  view  in  the  composition  of  his  Gospel. 

The  Gnostics  represented  the  Logos,  the  Monogenes 
or  Only-begotten,  Life,  and  Light  as  aeons  distinct  from 
the  Supreme  Being  ;  they  regarded  the  Creator  of  the 
world  and  Author  of  the  Jewish  dispensation  as  an 
inferior,  imperfect,  and  —  according  to  some  of  their 
teachers  —  malignant  being ;  and  maintained  that 
Christ  was  sent  by  the  Supreme  God  to  deliver 
men  from  his  tyranny  and  from  the  yoke  of  Judaism. 
Ephesus,  where  St.  John  is  believed  to  have  passed 
the  last  years  of  his  life  and  to  have  written  his 
Gospel,  was  the  metropolis  of  Gnosticism.  If  the 
author  of  the  fourth  Gospel  lived  where  these  opin- 
ions were  taking  root,  it  was  incumbent  on  him  to 
show  that  Life,  Light,  and  the  Logos  were  not  dis- 
tinct from,  but  identical  with,  the  Supreme  God  ;  that 
the  Supreme  God  created  the  world  and  gave  the 
Jewish  law  ;  and  that  the  same  God  sent  the  Mono- 
genes  Jesus  Christ  not  to  destroy,  but  to  complete  the 
law  ;  not  to  deliver  men  from  its  tyranny,  but  to  con- 
summate for  and  in  them  the  blessedness  of  which  it 

*  Renan  admits  their  genuineness. 


92  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

was  the  pledge  and  promise.  I  need  not  say  how 
thoroughly  this  work  is  accomplished  in  the  first 
eighteen  verses  of  the  fourth  Gospel,  in  which  the 
author,  as  with  a  prophet's  wand,  waves  back  to  their 
native  nothingness  the  chimeras  of  an  arrogant  and 
presumptuous  philosophy. 

An  anti-Gnostic  purpose  is,  then,  perfectly  evident 
in  this  introduction  of  the  fourth  Gospel.  But  it  deals 
with  Gnosticism  only  in  its  first  stages,  in  its  rudiments. 
Had  it  been  written,  as  it  is  said  to  have  been,  in  the 
second  century,  there  would  have  been  a  heavier  and 
a  more  complex  task  devolved  upon  the  author.  The 
system  which  he  opposed  grew  rapidly.  The  Valen- 
tinians,  whose  founder  flourished  about  a.d.  140,  num- 
bered no  less  than  thirty  aeons,  in  pairs,  male  and 
female.  Basilides,  who  lived  about  fifteen  years  earlier, 
promulgated  a  system  not  less  complicated,  and  even 
more  grotesque  and  absurd.  Still  earlier  in  the  century, 
there  sprang  up  in  the  East  the  Ophitic  form  of  Gnos- 
ticism, in  which  the  serpent  in  Eden,  the  serpents  that 
bit  the  Israelites  in  the  wilderness,  the  rod  which  be- 
came a  serpent  in  the  hand  of  Moses,  and  the  brazen 
serpent,  all  represented  spiritual  agencies,  —  the  former 
two  malignant,  the  latter  two  beneficent.  Had  the 
fourth  Gospel  been  written  after  this  heresy  grew  rife, 
it  is  impossible  that  the  reference  to  the  brazen  ser- 
pent in  the  conversation  with  Nicodemus  should  have 
passed  without  comment.  In  fine,  there  are  in  this 
Gospel  no  traces  whatever  of  several  forms  which  we 
know  that  Gnosticism  assumed  in  the  second  century  ; 
while  there  are  evident  references  to  opinions  which 


THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL  JOHN'S.  93 

must  have  been  held  by  Cerinthus  and  his  Gnostic 
contemporaries,  and  with  which  St.  John  must  have 
been  conversant  in  the  latter  years  of  his  life. 

I  have  shown  you  that  the  fourth  Gospel  must  have 
been  written  in  the  first  century,  that  John  could 
have  written  it,  that  it  is  too  remarkable  a  book  to 
have  passed  into  circulation  anonymously,  and  that  of 
all  the  early  Christians  whose  names  have  come  down 
to  us  there  is  none  but  John  who  could  have  written 
it.  These  reasons  for  believing  in  the  genuineness 
of  the  fourth  Gospel  as  the  work  of  John,  stand  by 
their  own  validity  and  need  no  corroboration.  Yet 
they  are  confirmed  by  the  critical  consciousness  of 
the  sincere  and  loving  follower  of  Jesus,  who,  the 
more  intimate  his  kindred  with  his  Lord,  feels  only 
the  fuller  assurance  that  this  record  can  have  come 
from  none  other  than  the  nearest  and  best  beloved  of 
the  disciples.* 

*  For  an  eminently  able  treatment  of  the  points  at  issue  among 
critics  concerning  the  fourth  Gospel,  the  reader  is  referred  to  "  The 
Fourth  Gospel  the  Heart  of  Christ,"  by  Rev.  Edmund  H.  Sears, 
D.D.,  —  a  work  remarkable  equally  for  its  acute  reasoning  and  its 
truly  Johannine  spirit  of  devotion. 


LECTURE  V. 

MIRACLES  AN  OBSTACLE  TO  FAITH.  —  PANTHEISTIC  OBJEC- 
TIONS. —  OBJECTIONS  FROM  THE  SOVEREIGNTY  OF  LAW.  — 
OBJECTIONS  FROM  EXPERIENCE.  —  NEED  AND  USE  OF  MIRA- 
CLES. —  MIRACLES  CONSONANT  WITH  THE  PERSON  AND 
MISSION  OF  CHRIST.  —  VERIFIED  BY  HUMAN  HISTORY.  — 
CONSISTENT  WITH  THE  KNOWN  METHODS  OF  THE  DIVINE 
ADMINISTRATION. 

'T^HE  arguments  urged  in  the  preceding  Lectures 
-*-  would  have  been  multipUed  to  waste  in  any 
Other  cause  than  that  in  which  they  are  employed. 
The  genuineness  of  most  ancient  books,  and  the 
authenticity  of  many  universally  admitted  facts  of 
earlier  times,  rest  on  much  weaker  evidence  than  sus- 
tains the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the  Gospels. 
Testimony  as  clear,  strong,  and  manifold  as  we  have 
to  the  leading  facts  in  the  life  of  Jesus  would  com- 
pletely rehabilitate  ancient  history.  Why  is  this 
testimony  denied  or  doubted }  There  was  a  time 
when  a  repugnancy  to  Christianity  on  moral  grounds 
accounted  to  a  large  extent  for  such  unbelief  as 
prevailed,  and  when  that  very  unbelief  itself  had 
almost  the  weight  of  affirmative  evidence  ;  for  such 
men  as  Rousseau,  Voltaire,  Paine,  could  hardly  have 
been  found  on  the  right  side,  on  the  divine  side,  of 
any  question  involving  principle  and  character.     The 


PRESENT  PHASIS  OF  SCEPTICISM. 


95 


objections  of  that  school  were  plausible,  but  super- 
ficial, sneers  oftener  than  arguments,  and  levelled 
rather  at  the  antecedents  and  accessories  of  Chris- 
tianity than  at  Christ  and  his  Gospel. 

Very  different  is  the  case  now.  Infidelity  seldom 
appears  in  scurrilous  forms,  associated  with  banter 
and  ribaldry.  It  is  frank,  honest,  earnest,  respect- 
ful and  often  even  reverent  toward  the  faith  it  repu- 
diates ;  and  among  its  expositors  are  not  a  few  men 
of  pure  character,  of  high  scientific  attainments, 
and  evidently  sincere  and  zealous  in  the  search  for 
truth.  They  have  no  disrelish  for  the  morality  of  the 
Gospel,  no  disesteem  for  Jesus  as  an  exemplar  and  a 
preacher  of  righteousness,  no  hostility  to  Christian 
institutions.  They  reject  Christianity  solely  on  ac- 
count of  its  miraculous  element.  At  the  same  time, 
there  are  others,  who  with  evident  sincerity  claim  to 
be  called  Christians,  profess  to  receive  Jesus  Christ 
as  an  unparalleled  model  of  spiritual  excellence,  and 
as  the  wisest  teacher  of  religion  and  morals  that  the 
world  has  yet  seen,  who  nevertheless  repudiate  the 
record  of  his  miracles,  and  maintain  that  he  was  no 
more  or  other  than  any  man  is  capable  of  becoming. 
These  persons  profess  to  receive  the  teachings  of 
Christ,  not  on  his  authority,  but  on  their  own,  on 
account  of  the  accordance  of  his  words  with  their 
own  intuitions  and  experience.  Yet,  in  order  to  be 
consistent  with  themselves,  they  can  receive  only  a 
limited  portion  of  his  teachings ;  for  the  paternal 
providence  of  God  over  individual  beings  and  events, 
the  spiritual  help  granted  to  aspirants  after  goodness, 


96  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

and  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  —  all  of  them  prominent  in 
the  discourses  of  Jesus,  —  are  liable  to  precisely  the 
same  objections  that  are  urged  against  the  miraculous 
narratives. 

The  alleged  incredibility  of  miracles  is  my  subject 
this  evening. 

There  is  one  theory  of  the  universe,  very  exten- 
sively maintained  among  both  philosophers  and  natu- 
ralists, which  would  render  miracles  impossible,  and, 
were  they  possible,  worthless ;  namely,  that  which 
denies  the  existence  of  a  personal  God.  Thus  Renan, 
an  atheist,  or  a  pantheist,  —  if  a  distinction  is  to  be 
made  where  there  is  no  essential  difference, — is  entire- 
ly self-consistent  in  maintaining  that  no  evidence  can 
authenticate  a  miracle.  He  writes  :  "  I  believe  that 
there  is  not  in  the  universe  an  intelligence  superior 
to  that  of  man  ;  there  is  no  free  existence  superior  to 
man,  to  whom  an  appreciable  share  may  be  assigned 
in  the  moral  administration,  any  more  than  in  the 
material  government,  of  the  universe."  Of  course, 
then,  there  exists  no  being  who  is  not  subordinated  to 
the  course  and  laws  of  nature. 

But  miracles  are  denied  by  many  sincere  theists, 
on  the  ground  of  their  incompatibility  with  the  divine 
order  of  the  universe,  which  implies  the  immutable- 
ness  of  natural  laws.  This  order,  it  is  said,  has  been 
invariable  so  far  as  observation  and  experience  — 
whether  our  own  or  such  as  it  is  within  our  power  to 
verify  —  are  concerned  ;  we  cannot  conceive  of  its  ever 
having  been  suspended  or  superseded  ;  and  our  assur- 
ance of  its  present  stability  is  so  firm  that  no  amount 


MIRACLES  INSEPARABLE  FROM  CHRISTIANITY.    97 

of  evidence  could  convince  us  of  the  occurrence  of  a 
miracle  now.  Still  less  can  any  clearness  or  accumu- 
lation of  testimony  bearing  date  nearly  two  thousand 
years  .ago  suffice  to  cancel  this  intrinsic  improbability. 
In  approaching  this  subject,  it  concerns  us  to 
understand  at  the  outset  that  the  discussion  cannot, 
by  any  possibility,  be  evaded.  It  is  idle  to  say  that 
our  faith  in  this  nineteenth  century  is  in  no  need  of 
miracles,  in  view  of  the  far  greater  than  miracle,  —  the 
moral  evidence  of  the  worth  and  power  of  Christian 
truth.  This  may  be,  nay,  ought  to  be,  the  case  with 
us,  if  we  have  drunk  deeply  of  the  spirit  of  Christ. 
Nay  more,  we  can  conceive  that  this  same  moral  evi- 
dence might  have  been  sufficient  for  those  who  lived 
for  many  months  in  his  intimacy,  and  that  the  sacred 
flame  of  piety  and  love  kindled  in  them  might  have 
been  passed  on  from  age  to  age  even  until  now.  In  view 
of  the  contemptuous  way  in  which  miracles  are  treated 
by  a  supercilious  philosophy,  and  are  looked  down 
upon  as  beggarly  and  obsolete  elements  by  some  who 
profess  to  believe  them,  we  may  wish  that  we  were 
rid  of  them,  and  feel  that  we  could  defend  Christian- 
ity all  the  better  without  them.  But  this  is  out  of 
the  question.  If  the  Gospels  are  genuine,  as  we 
have  seen  reason  to  believe  them  to  be,  the  miracles 
are  inseparable  from  the  religion  and  its  Author. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  his  earliest  and  closest 
followers  believed  in  them.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  he  professed  to  perform  them.  Christianity,  the 
religion  with  which  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
indissolubly  connected,  is  so  alUed  with  miracles  that 

5 


98  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

its  defence  without  them  is  tantamount  to  its  rejec- 
tion. 

In  our  investigation  of  this  subject,  it  may  be  worth 
our  while  to  inquire  how  far  any  man  is  authorized  to 
deny  the  possibiUty  of  miracles.  What  created  being 
can  know  all  that  it  was  ever  possible  for  the  Creator 
to  do  'i  Does  not  the  denial  that  miracles  are  possi- 
ble involve  the  assumption  of  a  virtual  co-divinity 
with  God,  of  omniscience,  of  the  caj>acity  of  search- 
ing and  fathoming  the  depths  of  the  Supreme  Intel- 
ligence t  God  alone  can  know  what  God  can  do.  If 
there  be  a  God,  infinite  and  eternal,  it  is  at  least  con- 
ceivable that  the  cycles  of  his  administration  transcend 
the  scrutiny  and  scope  of  a  being  so  short-sighted 
and  short-lived  as  man.  If  there  be  a  God,  his  will 
is  the  first  cause  of  outward  nature  ;  that  will  might 
have  made  it  entirely  other  than  it  is,  so  that  in  the 
normal  course  of  events  there  should  not  have  been  a 
single  feature  in  common  with  the  present  course ; 
and  does  not  the  power  of  constituting  this  entire 
difference  include  all  lesser  powers  of  the  same  kind 
and  thus,  of  necessity,  the  power  of  modifying  at  will 
the  existing  order  of  things  "i 

But  it  is  said.  Causation  is  an  essential  category  of 
human  thought.  An  uncaused  effect,  or  a  non- 
efficient  cause,  is  an  absurdity.  Very  true,  and  the 
atheist  alone  is  chargeable  with  imagining  this  absur- 
dity. But  what  are  the  efficient  causes  in  nature  } 
Has  any  material  agent  been  so  analyzed  as  to  show 
that  there  is,  in  the  structure  or  arrangement  of  its 
particles,  an   inherent  reason  why  it  should,  of  its 


EFFICIENT  CAUSES   UNDISCOVERABLE.  99 

own  force,  produce  certain  effects,  and  no  others  ? 
The  latest  philosophy,  as  it  seems  to  me  on  valid 
grounds,  makes  of  the  imponderable  elements  in  the 
universe  —  heat,  light,  magnetism,  electricity,  gravita- 
tion—  but  one  force,  identical  in  its  nature,  though 
Protean  in  its  modes  of  manifestation.  Can  it  be  pre- 
tended that  the  physicist  has  actually  manipulated  a 
substance,  force,  or  agency,  in  which  he  detects  such 
specific  inherent  properties  as  fully  account,  by  physi- 
cal causation,  for  the  fire,  the  magnet,  the  thunder- 
bolt, the  gravitating  planet  ?  The  same  force,  it  is 
believed,  sustains  animal  and  vegetable  life,  sensation, 
muscular  motion,  cerebral  action.  But  who  has  ex- 
plored the  seat  of  life,  traced  it  to  its  source,  ana- 
lyzed its  processes  "l  The  anatomist  may  demonstrate 
the  adaptation  of  the  various  members  and  organs  of 
the  human  body  to  the  functions  of  the  living  man  ; 
but  he  cannot  say  why  or  how  that  man  ever  lived. 
There  is  no  visible  or  tangible  cause  for  the  life  of 
the  man  who  does  or  did  live,  that  does  not  equally 
exist  for  the  life  of  the  steam-engine  which  never  did 
and  never  will  live ;  for,  according  to  the  theory  of 
the  convertibility  of  force,  the  cause  of  the  engine's 
motion  and  of  the  man's  life  is  one  and  the  same.  A 
microscopic  dissection  of  the  apple-seed  shows  the 
germ  from  which  the  tree  is  developed ;  but  had  the 
man  who  dissected  it  lived  on  a  sand  waste,  and  never 
seen  or  heard  of  a  tree,  he  would  have  found  nothing 
in  the  structure  of  the  seed  from  which  he  could  pre- 
dict the  tree ;  nor,  when  he  first  saw  a  tree,  would  he 
even  have  connected  it  in  thought  with  the  seed  that 


lOO  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

he  had  analyzed.  In  fact,  we  know  nothing  of  effi- 
cient causes  in  nature.  We  barely  know  that  there 
are  certain  invariable  sequences  within  the  field  of 
our  observation  and  experience  ;  that  some  phenomena 
are  always  antecedent  to  and  prophetical  of  others ; 
that  is,  that  we  live  in  an  orderly  universe.  Yet 
efficient  causation  there  must  be.  It  may  reside, 
though  to  us  untraceable,  in  the  antecedents  which 
we  call  causes.  The  Creator  may,  as  the  Epicureans 
maintained,  have  lodged  in  the  primitive  rudimental 
atoms  the  power  of  life,  growth,  change,  renewal,  —  a 
power  which,  without  his  interposition,  can  work  un- 
spent from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  time.  But,  on 
this  hypothesis,  he  who,  for  wise  and  benevolent  ends, 
endowed  brute  matter  with  this  living  and  unwasting 
power,  may,  for  equally  wise  and  benevolent  reasons, 
at  certain  epochs  of  the  world's  history  have  sus- 
pended or  superseded  its  action. 

But  while  efficient  causes  in  nature  elude  our  re- 
search, do  not  the  identity  and  convertibility  of  force 
point  to  the  Omnipresent  God  as  not  only  the  First 
Cause,  but  the  sole  Cause  t  Can  his  presence  be  inert } 
Can  we  conceive  of  him  as  eternally  quiescent,  watch- 
ing the  revolution  of  the  machinery  which  in  the 
beginning  he  put  in  motion }  Is  not  convertible  force 
simply  God  in  nature,  varied  in  manifestation,  yet 
unchanged  in  power,  wisdom,  and  love }  Is  there 
not  as  sound  philosophy,  as  rich  poetry,  in  the  con- 
ception of  the  Hebrew  seers,  in  whose  thought  "  the 
God  of  glory  thundereth  ; "  "  He  maketh  the  clouds 
his  chariot,  and  walketh  upon  the  wings  of  the  wind  ;  '* 


MIRACLES  ONLY  WHEN  NEEDED.  lOI 

"  He  sendeth  the  springs  into  the  valleys  ; "  "  He 
causeth  the  grass  to  grow  for  the  cattle,  and  herb  for 
the  service  of  man "  ?  If  this  be  so,  it  is  surely 
within  his  omnipotence  to  perform  directly,  and 
without  their  usual  antecedents,  acts  which  are  ordi- 
narily preceded  by  signs  that  indicate  their  occurrence 
in  the  near  future  ;  to  convert  water  into  wine  without 
its  passing  through  the  various  alembics  of  nature 
and  art ;  to  cure  the  paralytic  without  the  medicines 
which  are  the  wonted  tokens  of  his  working  ;  to 
restore  life  to  the  inanimate  human  form,  which  had 
drawn  every  breath  of  its  previous  life  immediately 
from  his  all-pervading  Spirit. 

But  it  is  said.  While  we  admit  the  abstract  possi- 
bility of  miracles,  they  are  so  entirely  opposed  to 
ordinary  human  experience  in  our  time  and  in  all 
time,  that  even  else  strong  testimony  cannot  make 
them  credible.  I  answer  that,  were  not  this  objection 
capable  of  being  urged,  miracles  could  not  occur,  or, 
occurring,  would  be  unmeaning,  futile,  and  worthless. 
The  very  idea  of  miracles  presupposes  their  infrequency, 
—  presupposes  a  general  order  of  nature,  transgressed 
only  at  the  rarest  intervals  and  for  the  most  momentous 
ends.  Were  what  we  term  miracles  frequent,  there 
would  be  no  established  order  of  nature,  and  conse- 
quently no  miracles  properly  so  called.  The  only 
purpose  which  such  events  could  serve  would  be  to 
unsettle  human  calculations  and  to  baffle  human  ex- 
pectation. Frequent,  they  would  fail  to  attract  atten- 
tion, to  elicit  reverence,  to  put  man  in  a  waiting 
attitude  for   the  voice   of   God.      Horace's  rule  for 


I02  CHRISTIANITY  AND   SCIENCE. 

dramatic  composition,  "  Let  not  a  god  intervene 
unless  there  be  a  knot  worth  his  untying"  *  (that  is,  an 
occasion  worthy  of  his  intervention),  involves  a  prin- 
ciple which,  as  it  applies  not  so  much  to  the  author  as 
to  the  receptivity  of  the  audience,  we  may,  without 
irreverence,  transfer  to  the  administration  of  the  uni- 
verse. Did  God  intervene  by  miracle  except  for 
momentous  ends,  and  at  decisive  epochs  of  human 
history,  man  is  so  constituted  that  this  intervention 
would  be  of  little  or  no  avail. 

Now  there  are  objects  worthy  of  the  divine  interven- 
tion. Therfe  are  ends  of  incalculable  importance  to 
man,  which,  so  far  as  we  can  see,  can  be  accomplished 
only  by  miracle. 

In  the  first  place,  a  clear  apprehension  of  the  per- 
sonality of  God  as  distinct  from  nature  is  attained 
only  through  miracle.  It  is  constantly  and  rightly 
maintained  by  the  most  learned  non-Christian  writers 
on  the  history  of  religion,  by  men  as  familiar  with  the 
scriptures  of  Brahminism  and  Buddhism  as  any  of  us 
are  with  the  Gospel  of  John,  that  the  personality  of 
God  is  an  element  imported  into  religious  thought 
solely  from  the  Semitic  religions, — that  all  the  other  old 
religions  —  alike  the  monotheistic,  dualistic,  and  poly- 
theistic —  are  mere  pantheism,  which,  they  maintain 
(and  here  of  course  I  part  company  with  them),  tends 
with  the  progress  of  philosophy  to  become  the  domi- 
nant, and  will  ultimately  be  the  sole,  faith  of  what  is 
now  Christendom.!     It  is,  as  I  have  said,  no  part  of 

*  Nee  Deus  intersit,  nisi  dignus  vindice  nodus 

Inciderit.  ... 
t  See  Appendix,  note  G. 


MIRACLES  ATTEST  A  PERSONAL   GOD.  103 

my  plan  to  detail  the  evidences  of  Judaism  ;  but,  were 
there  not  ample  reason  beside  to  believe  the  Old 
Testament  miracles  authentic,  I  should  believe  them 
solely  on  account  of  the  pure  personal  monotheism  of 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  Unless,  in  the  strong  figure 
of  the  psalmist,  God  had  "bowed  the  heavens  and 
come  down,"  there  is  no  possibility  that  Judaism 
should  have  differed  in  this  respect  from  the  other 
religions  of  the  civilized  or  semi-civilized  Eastern 
world.  Man's  inevitable  tendency  in  the  earlier 
stages  of  his  culture  has  uniformly  been  to  identify 
divine  power  with  its  manifestations,  deity  with 
force,  God  with  nature.  The  gods  of  polytheism  are 
separate  world-forces,  symbolized  in  the  ruder,  person- 
ified in  the  more  refined,  forms  of  idolatry.  With  the 
growth  of  knowledge,  it  is  ascertained  that  the  universe 
is  not  under  a  multiform  administration  ;  that  filaments 
of  interdependence  and  harmony  unite  its  various  por- 
tions and  departments  ;  that  fire  and  air,  land  and 
ocean,  are  parts  of  the  same  system  ;  and  then  the 
many  world-forces  are  resolved  into  one  or  two,  either 
the  Soul  of  the  Universe  (Anima  Mtmdi),  or  Ormuzd 
and  Ahriman.  But  these  are  not  personal  gods.  They 
are  the  life-principle  perpetually  striving  to  develop 
itself  in  material  forms,  —  each  living  being  emanating 
from  it,  and  ultimately  reabsorbed  into  it.  There  is  no 
manifestation  of  the  divine,  except  in  and  through 
nature  ;  therefore  God  and  nature  are  one.  In  the 
higher  Greek  philosophy,  indeed,  we  have  what  we 
may  term  semi-detached  Deity  ;  but  the  distinct  and 
definite  personality  of  God  —  the  idea  which  pervades 


I04  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

the  whole  Hebrew  and  Christian  Scriptures,  and 
through  them  the  Koran  —  is  reached  in  no  one 
instance  by  any  non-Semitic  religion  or  philosophy. 
Still  farther,  in  our  own  time,  the  inevitable  tendency 
of  the  rejection  of  historical  Christianity  is  toward 
pantheism.  The  rationalism  of  Germany,  the  liberal- 
ism of  France,  the  secularism  of  England,  the  free 
religion  of  America,  are  all  succumbing  to  this  ten- 
dency. Greg,  in  his  "  Enigmas  of  Life,"  deems  it 
necessary  to  apologize  for  clinging  to  a  belief  in  the 
divine  personality  ;  admits  that  with  his  premises  he 
cannot  justify  it  on  rational  grounds  ;  and  says  that  it 
is  probably  due,  together  with  his  faith  in  individual 
immortality,  to  the  lingering  prejudices  of  a  Christian 
education,  —  prejudices  which  have  not  been  strong 
enough  to  hold  back  even  the  son  of  such  a  Christian 
educator  as  Thomas  Arnold  from  rejecting  a  personal 
God  along  with  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels.  Strauss,  in 
"  The  Old  Faith  and  the  New,"  has  given  the  world 
an  invaluable  legacy,  in  his  plain  and  logical  develop- 
ment of  the  natural  and  inevitable  tendency  of  ration- 
alism to  lapse  into  virtual  atheism.  At  the  present 
moment,  the  majority  in  numbers,  the  overwhelming 
majority  in  learning,  talent,  and  influence,  among  those 
within  the  pale  of  Christendom  who  are  not  Christians, 
are  pantheists  or  atheists. 

But  miracle  is  the  demonstration  of  a  personal  God. 
It  detaches  the  Creator  from  his  works.  It  lays  bare 
the  Almighty  arm  to  human  vision.  It  shows  God, 
not  only  in,  but  above  nature,  —  its  Controller,  its  Sov- 
ereign Ruler,  under  whose  hand  what  seem  the  ada- 


MIRACLES  ATTEST  IMMORTALITY.  105 

mantine  bonds  of  law  are  loosed,  and  forces  that  had 
been  deemed  inflexible  become  fluent  and  ductile. 
From  this  faith  no  believer  in  miracle  can  fall  away. 
To  this  faith  no  religion  that  rests  on  miracle  can  be 
false.  Miracle,  then,  is  God's  mode  of  self-revelation. 
Imbedded  in  authentic  history,  it  need  not  be  repeated. 
Its  testimony  is  coeval  in  duration  with  its  veracious 
record.  The  sublime  truth  which  it  embodies  is  re- 
vealed afresh  to  every  believing  soul  that  receives  the 
record. 

To  pass  to  another  topic,  to  us  of  hardly  less  mo- 
mentous interest  than  the  being  of  a  personal  God, 
I  know  not  how  immortality  is  to  be  made  certain 
except  by  miracle.  It  is  craved  by  man  as  he  ap- 
proaches his  full  development,  and  the  wish  naturally 
begets,  but  does  not  authenticate,  the  belief.  There 
are  in  man  powers  and  affections  adapted  to  continuous 
existence,  capable  of  indefinite  growth  ;  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  these  inspires  an  apprehension  —  more 
or  less  clear  and  strong  —  of  immortality.  There  are, 
too,  analogies  of  nature  which  authorize  the  hope  of  a 
life  beyond  death.  But  analogy  can  only  remove  ob- 
jections. It  never  has  the  force  of  affirmative  proof 
or  argument.  It  may  corroborate  the  belief  established 
on  other  grounds,  but  can  furnish  no  sure  ground  of 
its  own.  Moreover,  there  are  in  nature  fully  as  numer- 
ous analogies  of  an  opposite  bearing  ;  and  whether 
these  or  those  of  a  more  hopeful  character  shall  pre- 
dominate depends  on  the  mood  of  the  hour.  The 
least  reassuring  aspects  of  nature  are  most  hkely 
to  present  themselves  to  the  thought  in  seasons  of 

5* 


Io6  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCEr 

bereavement  or  under  the  shadow  of  death,  when 
those  of  the  happiest  omen  are  most  needed.  Con- 
sciousness of  immortaUty  there  cannot  be  ;  for  con- 
sciousness has  a  present  only,  no  past  but  through 
memory,  and  no  future. 

Accordingly,  we  look  all  through  Pagan  antiquity 
in  vain  for  a  parallel  to  those  glorious  bursts  of  ecstatic 
assurance  which  we  find  so  often  in  St.  Paul,  —  the  de- 
sire to  depart  and  be  with  Christ,  the  certainty  that 
there  is  laid  up  for  him  a  crown  of  righteousness,  —  that 
the  corruptible  shall  put  on  incorruption,  the  mortal 
be  clothed  in  immortality.  Socrates,  in  dying,  hopes 
that  he  is  going  to  the  society  of  good  men,  but  is 
unwilling  to  make  positive  and  confident  affirmation 
to  that  effect ;  and,  if  we  may  believe  Plato,  his  chief 
argument  for  the  future  eternity  rests  on  the  assump- 
tion of  the  past  eternity  of  individual  being.  Cicero 
commences  his  masterly  argument  for  immortality 
by  showing  that,  if  his  reasoning  should  be  found 
inconclusive,  annihilation  is  no  evil ;  and  when  his 
daughter  lies  dead  in  his  house,  he  confesses  that  the 
proofs  that  had  seemed  to  him  so  strong  when  he 
committed  them  to  writing  yield  him  no  support  or 
consolation.  Seneca  contradicts  himself  on  this  point, 
and  leaves  no  certain  utterance.  Marcus  Aurelius 
manifests  earnest  hope  rather  than  strong  faith. 
Epictetus  evidently  did  not  expect  a  life  after  death. 
In  Plutarch,  indeed,  we  have  no  token  of  serious  doubt 
as  to  immortality  ;  but  this  belief  occupies  with  him 
by  no  means  the  foremost  place  which  it  holds  in  the 
faith  and  the  motive  power  of  every  Christian,  and  in 


TOKENS  OF  A    TEACHER  SENT  FROM  GOD.     107 

his  eminently  prosperous  career  it  was  exposed  to 
fewer  severe  trials  than  occur  in  ordinary  human 
experience. 

This  is  a  subject  on  which  absolute  certainty  can 
come  only  through  revelation,  oral  or  visible,  —  in  words 
that  bear  the  stamp  of  divinity,  or  in  events  which 
shall  show  that  death  is  not  destruction.  As  immor- 
tality is  not  a  truth  of  consciousness,  and  cannot  be 
verified  by  any  human  experience  that  comes  within 
the  scope  of  natural  laws,  it  can  be  made  known  to 
man  only  in  modes  in  which  natural  laws  are  super- 
seded or  transcended. 

There  are  yet  other  fundamental  subjects  on  which 
the  truth  is  objective  as  regards  man,  and,  if  known 
at  all,  must  be  known  by  testimony  from  God  ;  that 
is,  by  miracle.  To  this  category  belong  the  divine 
Fatherhood,  the  pertinence  and  efficacy  of  prayer,  and 
the  relations  which  unrepented  sin  and  repentance 
establish  between  man  and  his  Creator,  this  last  being 
a  question  coextensive  in  importance  with  immortality 
itself. 

All  these  truths,  indeed,  have  been  and  are  to  be 
transmitted  and  propagated  by  the  speech  and  writing 
of  men  possessed  of  only  ordinary  endowments.  But 
the  speech  or  writing  must  emanate  in  the  first  in- 
stance from  an  authoritative  source  ;  else  its  antiquity 
or  its  wide  diffusion  can  create  for  it  no  prestige,  no 
claim  upon  belief.  With  regard  to  these  subjects, 
no  man  has  or  can  have  had  underived  knowledge. 
Where  the  evidence  of  consciousness  or  intuition  is 
unattainable,  no  degree  of  wisdom  or  goodness  can 


I08  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

fully  authenticate  a  man's  statements.  If  Jesus  Christ 
was  in  every  thing  except  his  superior  wisdom  and 
excellence  like  you  and  me,  a  man  with  none  but  self- 
acquired  knowledge  and  endowments,  we  can  easily 
understand  why  he  believed  and  taught  immortality  ; 
for  such  a  life  as  he  was  leading  would  have  seemed 
to  him  too  precious  to  perish,  and  he  would  have  so 
yearned  to  live  on  that  the  wish  by  its  intensity  would 
have  become  prophecy  to  his  own  thought.  But  his 
belief  would  be  no  valid  ground  for  mine.  His  words 
would  have  merely  the  authority  which  belongs  to 
those  of  every  sound  thinker.  But  if  God  virtually 
points  to  him,  and  says  of  him,  "  This  is  my  Messen- 
ger ;  receive  his  words  as  mine,"  —  then  those  words 
become  not  opinion,  but  truth  ;  not  reasoning,  but 
knowledge.  They  are  attested  not  by  the  weight 
and  worth  of  a  human  intellect  and  character,  but 
by  the  only  Being  in  the  universe  who  has  underived 
knowledge  in  the  realm  that  transcends  finite  con- 
sciousness and  experience.  Now  there  is  no  con- 
ceivable way  in  which  God  can  say  this,  except  by 
miracle.  There  must  be  something  in  the  antece- 
dents, belongings,  doings,  or  experiences  of  the  person 
thus  authenticated,  which  shall  set  him  apart  from  all 
others  as  a  God-marked  man,  and  shall  thus  constitute 
his  recognized  commission  as  a  divinely  sent  teacher. 
This  commission  may  be  universal  and  perpetual, 
though  the  teacher  speak  to  but  few,  and  early  vanish 
from  mortal  sight.  His  words  may  be  recorded  with 
the  same  accuracy  and  transmitted  with  the  same 
fidelity  which  characterize  the  record  and  transmission 


TESTIMONY  TO  SPIRITUAL    TRUTHS.  I  Op 

of  uttera,nces  of  prime  importance  in  judicial  and  politi- 
cal affairs  ;  and  the  events  that  constitute  his  creden- 
tials are  as  capable  of  becoming  facts  of  authentic 
history  as  any  other  events  of  his  time.  Still  farther, 
these  events,  if  authentic,  are  a  sufficient  guaranty  for 
the  substantially  correct  transmission  of  the  words  to 
which  they  give  authority  ;  for  if,  by  events  aside  from 
the  common  course  of  nature,  God  attests  communi- 
cations of  such  a  kind  as  to  be  obviously  designed  for 
and  adapted  to  all  men  of  all  ages,  it  is  inconceivable 
that  he  should  not  provide  for  their  authentic  and 
permanent  record.  For  this  reason  I  regard  all  that 
is  essential  in  the  question  of  inspiration  as  involved 
in  the  authenticity  of  the  Christian  miracles.  If  God 
interposed  by  miracle  to  teach  men  of  duty,  of  pardon, 
of  heaven,  and  of  the  way  to  everlasting  salvation,  we 
are  sure  that  he  has  given  enduring  validity  and  effi- 
cacy to  his  work,  whatever  may  be  our  technical 
formula  for  the  shape  of  the  record  or  the  aniimis  of 
its  writers.  Thus  miracle  may  furnish  adequate  and 
permanent  evidence  for  the  contents  of  a  divine  reve- 
lation. 

It  is  said,  however,  that,  from  the  very  nature  of 
things,  physical  facts,  material  events,  cannot  attest 
spiritual  truths,  which  demand  evidence  of  their  own 
order,  and  can  be  believed  only  as  recognized  by  in- 
tuition and  verified  by  experience.  This  statement, 
which  seems  plausible,  will  not  bear  examination.  It 
is  not  true  even  within  the  legitimate  range  of  ex- 
perience. We  have  an  undoubting  belief  of  very 
numerous  spiritual  facts,  truths,  and  laws,  which  we 


no  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

are  capable  of  testing,  yet  never  have  tested  for  our- 
selves. The  psychological  phenomena  of  drunkenness 
and  of  opium-eating  are  believed  by  those  who  have 
made  no  trial  of  them  ;  and  it  is  a  belief,  too,  which 
has  a  decisive  effect  on  conduct,  on  the  one  hand 
deterring  not  a  few  from  those  first  steps  down  the 
declivity  of  ruin  which  it  is  so  hard  to  retrace,  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  sometimes  exciting  a  morbid  curiosity 
as  to  the  fantastic  and  delirious  joy  of  inebriation. 
Equally  may  a  thoroughly  bad  man  receive  on  faith 
the  happiness  that  results  from  a  virtuous  course,  and 
may  be  thus  induced  to  make  first  experiments  in  that 
direction.  It  may  be  said,  indeed,  that  statements  of 
this  sort  need  no  miraculous  attestation  :  yet  it  is 
conceivable  that  from  a  teacher  thus  sanctioned  they 
might  come  with  a  stress  of  influence  on  opinion, 
feeling,  and  character,  not  to  be  otherwise  attained ; 
so  that,  were  it  only  to  promulgate  what  to  the  devel- 
oped spiritual  consciousness  are  mere  moral  truisms, 
there  might  be  adequate  ground  for  miraculous  inter- 
vention, in  an  age  of  declension  and  depravity. 

As  regards  such  spiritual  truths  as  are  objective  to 
our  own  consciousness,  miracle  is  so  far  from  being 
an  inappropriate  evidence,  that  it  may  be  a  manifes- 
tation of  the  very  truth  to  which  it  bears  witness,  and 
so  may  not  only  verify,  but  be,  a  revelation.  Thus,  as 
I  have  said,  an  event  aside  from  the  wonted  order  of 
nature  is  in  itself  a  manifestation  of  the  fundamental 
truth  of  the  spiritual  universe,  —  the  existence  of  God 
independently  of  nature.  What,  too,  are  the  miracles 
of  healing  in  the  New  Testament  but  the  universal 


MIRACLES  BEAR   WITNESS  TO   CHRIST.        Ill 

Providence  made  visible  ?  What  the  raising  of  Laza- 
rus, but  the  indestructibility  of  the  soul  submitted  to 
the  evidence  of  eye,  and  ear,  and  hand  ?  As  regards 
other  truths,  it  may  be  impossible  to  trace  in  miracles 
any  specific  relation  to  them,  and  they,  therefore,  are 
not  directly  proved  by  miraculous  evidence  ;  but,  so 
far  as  works  beyond  the  ordinary  scope  of  human 
power  authenticate  a  teacher,  they,  of  necessity,  attest 
the  truths  which  he  utters,  though  they  be  objective, 
and  therefore  not  capable  of  verification  by  his  hearers, 
or  though  they  be  such  as  can  be  verified  only  by  the 
experience  to  which  they  open  the  way  and  afford  the 
motive. 

On  yet  another  ground  we  may  trace  what  might 
seem  a  necessity,  or,  at  least,  an  adequate  occasion 
for  miracle.  Jesus  Christ  professed  to  be  more  than 
a  good  man  and  a  teacher  of  piety.  He  claimed  to 
be  the  Son  of  God  in  a  peculiar  and  pre-eminent  sense, 
and,  as  Mediator  and  Redeemer,  to  stand  in  certain 
relations  to  God  and  man  in  which  no  one  else  has 
stood.  It  is  not  to  our  present  purpose  to  define 
these  relations,  or  rather,  it  is  essential  to  our  purpose 
to  leave  them  undefined  ;  for  the  position  on  which  I 
would  base  my  argument  is,  that  to  all  Christian 
believers,  of  whatever  name  or  creed,  Jesus  Christ, 
though  man,  is  more  than  man,  holds  a  sole  place  and 
office  with  reference  to  the  human  race,  and  thus 
constitutes  in  a  certain  sense  and  degree  a  class  by 
himself.  If  this  be  so,  we  may  maintain,  first,  that  he 
could  be  designated  to  man  as  holding  this  place  and 
office  only  by  miracles  ;  and,  secondly,  that  what  we 


112  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

call  miracles,  though  superhuman,  may  be,  as  wrought 
by  him,  or  for  him,  or  through  him,  no  more  super- 
human than  he  himself  is,  but  as  regards  him  and  his 
office  simply  normal,  fully  as  accordant  with  his  place 
in  the  universe  as  the  power  which  man  ordinarily 
exerts  over  nature  is  with  his  place  in  the  universe. 
These  considerations  are  applicable  not  only  to  his 
own  alleged  miracles,  but  equally  to  those  of  earlier 
religious  dispensations,  typical  and  prophetic  of  his 
coming,  and  to  those  wrought  under  his  immediate  aus- 
pices for  the  establishment  of  his  advent  and  mission 
among  the  indelible  facts  of  history.  If  it  be  main- 
tained that  it  was  intrinsically  impossible  for  the  Al- 
mighty to  put  upon  the  earth  a  higher  being  than  the 
normal  man,  then  miracles  may  be  equally  impossible  ; 
for,  when  we  once  begin  to  limit  the  infinite  attributes 
of  God,  we  can  no  longer  base  any  argument  on  his 
plenary  power.  But  if  it  was  possible  for  him  to  send 
into  the  world  a  greater  than  man  to  redeem  man, 
then  was  it  equally  possible  for  him  to  connect  with 
that  Redeemer's  advent  and  earthly  life  physical 
phenomena  that  might  indicate  and  verify  his  place 
among  men.  So  far  then  as,  aside  from  the  miracu- 
lous narratives,  there  is  recognized  in  the  character  of 
Jesus,  in  his  influence,  in  his  position  as  a  factor  in 
human  history,  aught  in  which  he  stands  alone  among 
men,  aught  that  worthily  gives  him  "  a  name  above 
every  name,"  so  far  do  those  miraculous  narratives 
become  probable.  Did  the  evangelists  represent 
Jesus  as  an  ordinary  man,  there  would  be  a  manifest 
incongruity  between  his  person  and  his  alleged  mira- 


CONDITION  OF  MAN  BEFORE  CHRIST.  1 13 

cles.  If  he  was  what  they  say  he  was,  those  works  of 
power  and  love  were  no  more  or  other  than  might 
have  been  expected  of  him  and  through  him. 

I  have  thus  shown  you  that  there  were  ends  of 
prime  importance,  in  the  promulgation  of  objective 
truth  which  man  needed  to  know,  and  in  the  authen- 
tication of  a  Teacher  and  Redeemer,  which  could,  so 
far  as  we  can  discern,  have  been  effected  only  by 
miracles,  and  which  therefore  presented  occasions 
that  seem  worthy  of  the  divine  interposition.  The 
probability  thus  established  is  confirmed  by  a  view  of 
the  condition  of  mankind  before  and  since  Christ. 
The  course  of  the  world  before  Christ  was  a  constant 
degeneracy  and  decline.  His  advent  was  at  the  mid- 
night of  history.  There  had  been  noble  nations : 
there  remained  not  one.  The  Greeks  had  lost  what 
of  manliness  they  once  had,  and  their  refinement  had 
degenerated  into  gross  sensuality.  The  Romans  had 
parted  with  their  purity  and  truth  ;  while  their  valor 
had  become  rapacity,  and  their  patriotism  faction. 
The  imperial  city  was  a  hospitable  metropolis  for  the 
vices  as  for  the  gods  of  all  lands,  and  with  regard  to 
every  form  of  depravity  the  practical  maxim  alike  of 
court  and  of  populace  was,  "  It  is  fitting  to  learn  even 
from  an  enemy  ; "  *  and  thence  and  thither,  with  the 
pulsation  of  a  common  political  life  to  the  remotest 
east  and  south,  and  to  the  confines  of  impenetrable 
Scandinavian  forests,  were  outward  and  refluent  cur- 
rents swollen  with  the  fetid  sewage  of  vice  and  crime. 
Religion,  such  as  there  had  been,  was  dead.  Philoso- 
*  "  Fas  est  et  ab  hoste  doceri." 


114  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

phy  survived  chiefly  under  the  loosened  zone  of  Epi- 
cureanism ;  for  the  Stoics,  the  only  really  great  men 
that  remained,  were  in  numbers  a  scanty  minority 
among  those  who  claimed  to  be  adepts  in  liberal  culture. 
In  Judaea  a  heartless  formalism  had  replaced  the  piety 
of  earlier  ages  ;  the  harp  of  praise  gave  but  the  retreat- 
ing echo  of  its  wonted  strains  ;  and  they  who  rebuilt 
the  sepulchres  of  the  prophets  bore  testimony  against 
themselves  in  professing  to  honor  those  whose  virtues 
they  suffered  to  slumber.  There  was  upon  the  earth  no 
hopeful  sign,  no  source  of  reforming  influence,  no  foun- 
tain for  renewed  life.  A  brighter  past  and  a  darker 
future  bounded  the  horizon  of  every  thoughtful  man, 
except  so  far  as  Hebrew  prophecy  had  given  its  color 
to  expectation. 

What  do  we  see  since  that  age }  Progress,  but  no 
decline.  Dawn,  sunrise,  high  morning,  but  no  reced- 
ing of  the  shadow  on  the  sundial.  Barbaric  irruptions 
that  fertilize,  when  they  threaten  to  destroy.  Dark 
ages,  like  those  dreary  spring-days  whose  drenching 
rains  are  the  harbinger  of  all  that  is  gladdening  in 
garden,  field,  and  orchard, — ages  during  which  humane 
principles  are  taking  root,  institutions  and  habits  of 
charity  and  mercy  springing  into  being,  slavery  melt- 
ing away  and  vanishing.  There  has  not  been  since 
the  Christian  era  a  century  than  which  we  can  say 
that  the  preceding  century  was  better. 

This  advance  without  retrogression  has  been  insep- 
arably connected  with  Christianity,  and  that,  the 
Christianity  of  the  Gospels,  resting  on  miraculous 
evidence.     It  is  primarily  in  this  aspect  that  Chris- 


MIR  A  CLES  NOT  AN  AFTER  THO  UGHT  1 1 5 

tianity  has  been  received,  diffused,  and  transmitted. 
We  may  attach  a  greater  or  less  importance  to  indi- 
vidual miracles  ;  but  we  cannot  be  mistaken  in  attrib- 
uting a  preponderant  influence  to  the  superhuman 
element  in  Christianity,  of  which  these  miracles  form 
a  part.  The  Titans  of  our  race  had  done  their  best 
to  raise  it,  and  had  failed.  The  earth  did  not  give 
them  a  strength  which  could  "  spread  undivided, 
operate  unspent."  It  is  only  the  religion  which 
claims  to  be  heaven-born  that  can  grow  with  the 
ages.  It  is  only  the  Saviour  who  claims  to  come 
from  the  bosom  of  the  Eternal  Father,  who  can  be  so 
lifted  up  that  he  gives  promise  of  drawing  all  men  to 
him.  When  we  see  that  belief  in  such  a  religion,  in 
such  a  Saviour,  though  mingled  with  puerilities, 
superstitions,  and  absurdities,  has  proved  the  might- 
iest force  in  the  moral  universe,  alone  not  yielding  to 
the  law  of  decline  and  exhaustion  to  which  all  other 
forces  have  succumbed,  it  becomes  in  the  highest 
degree  probable  that  mankind  needed  such  a  religion, 
such  a  Saviour ;  and,  if  so,  the  miracles  that  attended 
its  promulgation  and  his  mission  were  in  themselves 
antecedently  probable. 

I  close  by  noticing  two  objections  that  have  been 
often  urged,  and  with  no  little  plausibility.  To  some 
minds  miracles  are  incredible  because  they  seem  an 
afterthought,  and  imply  some  initial  imperfection  in 
the  Creator's  work.  What  was  wisely  made  could 
not  have  needed  repair.  What  was  fitly  planned 
could  not  have  demanded  remedy  and  re-adjusting. 
I  answer,  What  was  made  and  placed  at  the  head  of 


Il6  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

this  lower  world  was  a  race  of  free  agents,  with  the 
unrestricted  choice  of  good  and  evil.  What  was 
planned  was  a  system  by  which,  with  or  without  help 
from  a  higher  power,  that  race  was  to  work  out  its 
own  destiny.  It  may  be  that  such  a  race,  however 
nobly  endowed,  if  less  than  divine,  could  not  but  try 
all  experiments  and  sound  all  depths  of  moral  evil ; 
could  not  but  lapse  into  a  depraved  and  morally  help- 
less condition  from  which  it  could  be  rescued  only  by 
an  arm  let  down  from  heaven.  It  may  be  that  in  the 
very  nature  of  things  the  kingdom  of  ultimate  and 
universal  righteousness,  of  which  the  Messianic  proph- 
ecies give  the  foreshining,  must  needs  have  had  its 
sunken  foundation  laid  in  such  wrecks  of  humanity  as 
the  waves  of  time  have  submerged.  If  so,  Christianity, 
with  its  apparatus  of  superhuman  manifestations  and 
events,  was  not  a  divine  afterthought,  but  a  divine 
forethought,  an  essential  part  of  the  initial  plan  of 
creation,  —  a  plan  by  which,  as  the  first  Adam  was 
the  progenitor  of  a  race  of  sinners  that  shall,  in  God's 
own  time,  run  out  and  leave  only  its  history,  the 
second  Adam  should  become  the  progenitor  of  a  race, 
born  not  of  the  flesh,  but  of  the  Spirit,  of  the  increase 
of  which  there  shall  be  no  end  till  time  shall  lapse 
into  eternity. 

Finally,  it  has  been  represented  as  incredible  that 
in  the  press  and  throng  of  habitable  worlds  that  gem 
our  night  heavens,  rank  beyond  rank,  in  realms  of 
telescopic  vision  which  even  our  figures  cannot 
overtake,  still  less  our  thought  conceive,  our  little 
planet  should  have  been  specially  signalized  by  a  stu- 


OTHER  WORLDS  THAN  OURS.  II7 

pendous  theophany,  with  its  attendant  pageantry  of 
prophecy,  sign,  and  marvel.  In  reply,  I  would  ask, 
Who  knows  that  our  planet  has  been  thus  specially 
signalized  ?  Undoubtedly  its  spiritual,  no  less  than 
its  physical,  history,  has  its  peculiar  features  ;  for  Infi- 
nite Wisdom  has  had  no  need  to  repeat  itself  in  the 
worlds.  But  how  know  we  but  that  in  some  form  or 
way  a  theophany  has  had  its  place  in  all  realms  and 
orders  of  spiritual  being ;  that  in  methods  analogous 
to  those  recorded  in  the  Christian  Scriptures  God  has 
in  all  parts  of  his  creation  made  known  his  being, 
providence,  and  righteous  retribution  ;  and  that  if 
there  has  been,  as  there  certainly  may  have  been,  in 
other  portions  of  the  universe  sin,  spiritual  defection, 
soul-peril,  he  has  interposed  in  mercy  like  that  in- 
carnate on  Calvary,  and  has  won  back  to  loyalty  and 
duty  his  children  in  the  stars  beyond  Arcturus  and 
Orion  no  less  than  among  the  sons  of  men  }  Enough 
for  us  that  we  own  what  he  has  done  for  our  fallen 
race.  In  the  eternity  that  lies  before  us,  it  may  be  that 
the  ransomed  from  among  men  will  be  immeasurably 
outnumbered  by  the  harps  and  tongues  from  worlds 
to  us  unknown  that  shall  swell  the  self-same  redemp- 
tion song. 


LECTURE  VI. 

PAUL'S  TESTIMONY  TO  CHRIST'S  RESURRECTION  THE  EARLIEST 
EXTANT.  —  ITS  SOURCE  AND  VALIDITY.  —  ACCOUNTS  OF 
THE  RESURRECTION  IN  THE  GOSPELS.  —  THE  APOSTLES 
BELIEVED     IN     CHRIST'S     RESURRECTION.  —  THE     CHURCH 

BUILT    UPON    IT. — Christ's    supposed  reappearance 

NOT  AN  HALLUCINATION.  — NOT  REVIVAL  FROM  A  SWOON.  — 
USES  OF  THE  RESURRECTION.  —  ITS  PROOF  GROWS  WITH 
TIME. 

''r^HE  earliest  written  mention  of  the  resurrection 
-^  of  Jesus  Christ  which  has  come  down  to  us 
is  by  St.  Paul,  in  his  first  epistle  to  the  Corin- 
thians,—  an  epistle  on  whose  genuineness  there  rests 
not  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  and  which  was  written 
some  twenty-three  or  twenty-four  years  after  the 
crucifixion.  In  this  epistle  Paul  speaks  of  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  as  the  fundamental  fact  on 
which  repose  alike  his  preaching  and  the  faith  of 
those  to  whom  he  writes.  It  is  worthy  of  the  most 
emphatic  notice,  also,  that  he  does  not  treat  this 
fact  as  needing  proof,  but  employs  it  by  way  of  argu- 
ment, as  of  itself  established  and  admitted  beyond 
question.  There  were,  it  seems,  among  the  Corin- 
thians, some  who  had  vague  and  loose  notions  about 
the  life  to  come  ;  denied  the  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
or  the  renewal  of  personal  identity  after  death ;  and 


PAUL   ON  THE  RESURRECTION. 


119 


probably,  in  opposition  to  such  ultra-realistic  views  of 
the  resurrection  as  Paul  himself  disclaims,  maintained 
ultra-spiritualistic  notions  which  refined  away  indi- 
vidual immortaUty,  and  left  the  disembodied  spirit  to 
be  reabsorbed  into  the  soul  of  the  universe.  To  meet 
this  error,  Paul  plants  himself  on  the  broken  sepul- 
chre in  the  garden,  and  takes  as  the  basis  of  a  masterly 
structure  of  conclusive  argument  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  as  a  universally  received  and  unquestioned  fact. 
He  rehearses  a  list  of  witnesses,  as  if  he  had  taken 
pains  to  examine  the  matter  for  himself.  The  risen 
Jesus,  he  says,  was  seen  by  Peter,  by  James,  and  by 
the  apostles  collectively.  He  certainly  must  have 
learned  this  directly  from  Peter  and  James,  when, 
several  years  before,  he  went  to  Jerusalem  to  confer 
with  them  about  his  new  faith,  and  was  authorized  by 
them  to  become  its  preacher  ;  for  if  they  had  been 
silent  about  the  resurrection  then,  and  afterward  pro- 
fessed to  believe  it,  to  a  man  of  Paul's  clear  and  culti- 
vated mind  the  story  would  have  seemed  a  fabrication 
unworthy  of  credit. 

This  visit  of  Paul  to  Peter  and  James  took  place 
not  more  than  ten,  probably  not  more  than  six,  years 
after  the  crucifixion  ;  and  thus  early  Christ's  resur- 
rection must  have  been  the  fixed  belief,  real  or  pre- 
tended, of  his  disciples.  A  myth  could  not  have 
grown  up  in  so  short  a  time.  What  was  professed  or 
believed  then  could  have  been  no  other  than  a  story 
grafted  immediately  upon  the  crucifixion,  and  must 
have  been  either  a  fact,  an  illusion,  or  an  imposture. 

Paul  farther  mentions  the  appearance  of  the  risen 


I20  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Jesus  to  more  than  five  hundred  brethren  at  once, 
and  says  that  the  greater  part  of  them  were  still 
living,  though  some  had  died.  This  certainly  looks 
as  if  he  were  acquainted  with  many  of  the  five  hun- 
dred, and  it  is  hardly  possible  that  in  a  matter  of  so 
grave  importance  he  should  not  have  examined  and 
weighed  their  testimony. 

Not  only  in  this  chapter,  but  throughout  the  four 
epistles  that  are  admitted  to  be  genuine  by  the  most 
rationalistic  critics,  the  resurrection  of  Christ  is  re- 
ferred to  as  the  one  salient  fact  of  the  Christian  his- 
tory. The  reader  of  these  epistles  cannot  doubt  that 
Paul  believed  it  as  firmly  as  he  believed  his  own 
existence,  and  that  he  wrote  to  converts  who  had  no 
thought  of  calling  it  in  question. 

There  are  not  a  few  to  whom  Paul's  testimony  is 
the  most  weighty  that  can  be  adduced.  He  was  a 
man  of  singular  acuteness,  and  of  large  and  high  cult- 
ure ;  no  man  of  his  time  was  his  superior,  if  his 
equal;  and  some  who  are  no  mean  judges  of  their 
fellow-men  look  upon  him  as  the  greatest  man  that 
God  ever  made.  He  had  been  a  vehement  opposer 
and  persecutor  of  the  new  faith.  On  that  route  lay 
office,  honor,  influence,  wealth.  He  chose  penury, 
contempt,  the  prison,  the  stocks,  stripes,  perpetual 
peril  of  death,  —  and  Christ ;  and  he  was  not  ashamed 
of  his  choice.  Only  the  strongest  conviction  could 
have  started  and  sustained  him  on  this  new  career, 
and  conviction  with  a  man  like  him  meant  impreg- 
nable proof,  —  solid  and  substantial  reasons.  In  the 
circle  in  which  he  moved  before  his  conversion,  Chris- 


EARLY  BELIEF  IN  THE  RESURRECTION.      121 

tianity  was  held  in  at  least  as  low  esteem  as  Mor- 
monism  is  with  us ;  and  for  such  a  man  as  he  to 
become  a  Christian  was  as  strange  and  abnormal  as 
it  would  be  for  one  of  our  divines,  or  judges,  or 
princely  merchants  to  join  the  motley  community  of 
Brigham  Young.  He  had  not  a  friend  who  was  not 
ashamed  of  him,  and  whose  respect  for  him  was  not 
changed  into  contempt.  To  face  all  this,  must  he 
not  have  had  a  belief  tantamount  to  knowledge  } 

From  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  —  which,  whatever 
slurs  may  be  cast  upon  it,  undeniably  represents  the 
general  tone,  drift,  and  scope  of  the  apostolic  preach- 
ing, —  it  appears  that  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  was 
proclaimed  within  a  few  weeks  after  his  death,  in  a 
discourse  which  won  a  multitude  of  converts  in  the  city 
where  he  died ;  and  it  is  hardly  possible  that  among 
them  there  were  not  many  who  had  seen  him  on  the 
cross.  Certainly  the  story  was  on  this  occasion  put  to 
the  severest  test  possible.  If  there  existed  any  means 
of  refuting  it,  they  were  close  at  hand.  The  neces- 
sary inference  is  that  the  belief  was  founded  either  on 
fact,  on  a  delusion  which  had  a  strange  resemblance 
to  reality,  or  on  a  deception  planned  and  carried 
through  with  the  most  consummate  dexterity.  From 
that  time  onward  the  apostles  and  their  associates  so 
uniformly  gave  this  story  a  foremost  place  in  their 
preaching,  that  we  might  not  unfittingly  call  theirs 
the  Gospel  of  the  Resurrection. 

We  have  the  most  ample  proof,  which  none  can  call 
in  question,  that  this  event  was  the  universal  belief  of 
Christians   long   before   either  of   the   Gospels   was 

6 


122  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

written ;  and  had  neither  of  them  ever  been  written, 
this  beUef  would  be  none  the  less  an  indisputable  fact 
in  the  history  of  the  Church.  But  in  the  Gospels 
alone  we  have  detailed  narratives  of  the  event. 
These  narratives,  as  I  said  in  a  former  Lecture, 
though  not  by  any  means  coincident,  fit  into  one 
another,  each  supplying  details  which  the  others  omit, 
but  for  which  they  leave  room.  If  all  four  of  the 
evangelists  were  in  Jerusalem  at  the  time  (as  they 
probably  were),  each  undoubtedly  related  such  occur- 
rences as  came  within  his  own  cognizance  ;  and  the 
four  harmonize  as  the  stories  of  four  commanders  of 
divisions  in  a  battle,  or  of  four  witnesses  of  the  trans- 
actions of  any  eventful  day  would  harmonize.  It  is 
alleged,  however,  that  there  are  some  irreconcilable 
discrepancies.  While  to  me,  as  I  have  said,  they  are 
not  irreconcilable,  yet,  if  they  were  so,  they  would 
rather  confirm  than  shake  my  faith  in  the  reality  of 
the  event  described.  It  is  to  me  astonishing  that 
there  should  not  have  been  such  discrepancies.  It  is 
the  uniform  tendency  of  an  event  that  strongly  moves 
the  imagination  and  the  emotional  nature  to  throw 
accessory  circumstances  into  the  background,  to  con- 
fuse and  blur  the  memory  with  regard  to  them,  and 
thus  to  generate  narratives  irreconcilable  in  their  de- 
tails. A  case  in  point  occurs  to  me  in  Roman  history. 
The  history  of  the  Second  Punic  War  was  written  by 
several  authors,  whose  narratives,  entire  or  in  part, 
have  been  preserved.  They  all  tell  the  story  of  ten 
prisoners  of  waj:  whom  Hannibal  sent  to  Rome, 
bound  by  an  oath  that  they  would  return  into  cap- 


ADMISSIONS  OF  SCEPTICS. 


123 


tivity  if  they  failed  to  obtain  an  exchange  of  prisoners. 
One  of  them,  at  the  outset,  pretended  to  have  for- 
gotten something,  returned  to  the  Carthaginian  camp 
as  if  to  look  for  it,  and  then  rejoined  the  other  nine 
on  the  route  to  Rome.  He  claimed  to  have  been  ab- 
solved of  his  oath  by  this  constructive  return,  in 
accordance  with  its  letter,  but  in  violation  of  its  spirit. 
One  account  says  that  he  was  sent  back  from  Rome 
to  Hannibal  in  chains  ;  another,  that  he  remained  at 
Rome,  but  was  degraded  for  life  from  the  rights  of 
citizenship  ;  and  there  are  vestiges  of  still  a  third 
version  of  the  story.*  The  flagrancy  of  the  crime,  in 
an  age  when  good  faith  was  held  inviolably  sacred  at 
Rome,  and  when  its  infraction  was  regarded  with  in- 
tense loathing,  so  impressed  the  public  mind  as  to 
throw  the  actual  doom  of  the  perjured  man  into  the 
shadow  of  his  own  guilt.  Not  a  few  instances  of  the 
same  kind,  in  which,  in  the  record  of  momentous  or 
startling  events,  accessory  facts  that  must  have  been 
publicly  known  have  been  transmitted  in  different 
forms,  might  be  quoted  from  both  ancient  and  modern 
history.  The  principle  is  an  important  one.  I  see 
no  need  of  applying  it  to  the  narratives  of  the  resur- 
rection ;  but,  were  there  need,  it  would  be  to  the 
fullest  extent  applicable. 

That  the  apostles  and  their  associates  believed  in 
their  Lord's  resurrection  hardly  needs  proof.  It  is 
admitted  by  Renan,  who  expressly  says  that  without 
this  belief  they  would  never  have  incurred  the  labors, 
hardships,  persecutions,  and  perils,  incident  to  the 
*  See  Appendix,  note  H. 


^4^^  0?  THB 

171117  BE  SIT  71 


124  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

founding  of  the  Christian  Church.  Strauss  writes  to 
the  same  purpose  :  ''  Faith  in  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  is  a  fact  of  prime  historical  importance  ;  for 
without  it  one  cannot  see  how  a  Christian  com- 
munity would  ever  have  been  formed  ; "  and,  again, 
"There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  apostle  Paul  had 
heard  from  Peter,  James,  and  others  beside,  that  Jesus 
had  appeared  to  them,  and  that  all  these  persons  and 
the  five  hundred  brethren  were  fully  convinced  that 
they  had  seen  Jesus  living,  who  had  been  dead." 
Baur,  who  has  as  little  Christian  faith  as  either 
Strauss  or  Renan,  but  whose  surpassing  erudition 
and  critical  acuteness  cannot  be  denied,  writes  in 
the  same  vein :  "  History  must  hold  fast  to  this  fact, 
that  for  the  faith  of  the  disciples  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ  was  a  certain  and  immovable  truth,  and 
that  it  is  only  in  this  faith  that  Christianity  found  a 
solid  basis  for  its  whole  historical  development."  In 
the  face  of  such  admissions  from  the  chief  pundits  of 
scepticism,  there  is  no  need  of  our  doing  any  thing 
more  to  establish  the  fact  that  the  apostles  and  their 
associates  believed  in  the  actual  resurrection  of  Jesus 
Christ  from  the  dead.  Nor  do  these  authors  cast  any 
doubt  on  the  supposed  appearances  of  Jesus  as  having 
been  recorded  in  good  faith  by  the  evangelists.  In- 
deed, it  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that,  if  they  honestly 
believed  the  story,  they  were  honest  in  their  relation 
of  the  grounds  on  which  they  believed  it.  Pascal  goes 
too  far  when  he  says,  "  I  readily  believe  stories  whose 
witnesses  offer  themselves  to  death  for  their  truth  ;  " 
but,  while  even  such  witnesses  may  be  grossly  mis- 


THE  RESURRECTION  NOT  A  DELUSION.       1 25 

taken,  we  must  admit  their  truthfulness,  and  suppose 
that  they  think  they  saw  all  that  they  pretend  to  have 
seen. 

The  two  hypotheses  which  divide  the  sceptical  world 
on  this  subject  are,  first,  that  Jesus  really  died,  and 
that  the  apostles  were  under  an  hallucination  in  sup- 
posing that  they  saw  him  alive  ;  and,  secondly,  that 
he  did  not  die,  but  fell  into  a  swoon  from  which 
he  recovered,  and  thus  actually  reappeared  after  his 
crucifixion. 

We  will  first  test  the  theory  of  hallucination.  On 
this  theory  the  body  of  Jesus  was  somewhere.  Where 
was  it .''  Who  removed  it  from  the  sepulchre  t  Who 
could  have  done  this  t  A  great  stone  was  laid  on  the 
mouth  of  the  sepulchre,  and  Roman  sentinels  guarded 
its  approach.  But  suppose  that  the  stone  was  not  too 
heavy  to  be  easily  moved,  and  that  the  Roman  sentry 
was  a  mere  figment,  or  that  the  soldiers  slept  on  their 
watch,  or  suffered  themselves  to  be  bribed, — who  took 
the  body  }  Not  the  disciples  ;  for  if  they  had  taken 
it,  they  would  not  have  believed  in  the  resurrection. 
Not  the  Jewish  or  Roman  authorities  ;  for  they  would 
have  produced  the  body  to  refute  the  story  of  the 
resurrection.  Tertullian  quotes  those  who  say  that 
the  gardener  removed  it,  to  prevent  the  trampling 
down  of  his  lettuce-beds  by  those  who  visited  the 
sepulchre.*  But  he  could  hardly  have  done  this 
without  the  order  of  his  master  ;  he  could  not  have 
removed  the  body  far ;    it   could    have   been   easily 

*  "  Hie  est,  quern  hortulanus  detraxit,  ne  lactucae  suze  frequentia 
commeantiiim  laederentur." 


126  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

found  ;  nay,  he  himself  would  have  produced  it  in  view 
of  the  reward  which  would  have  been  readily  paid  to 
negative  the  growing  rumor  of  the  resurrection. 
Moreover,  the  removal  of  the  body  while  the  grave- 
clothes  were  left  behind  is  inconceivable,  unless  it 
were  a  contrivance  to  substantiate  the  story  of  the 
resurrection  :  such  a  stratagem  would  have  been 
possible  only  for  those  who  were  going  to  circulate 
the  story,  that  is,  for  the  disciples  ;  and  we  have  seen 
that  the  supposition  of  fraud  on  their  part  is  utterly 
untenable.  Renan,  with  characteristic  frankness,  con- 
fesses himself  unable  to  solve  this  mystery,  yet  sug- 
gests that  Joseph  of  Arimathea  may  have  procured 
the  removal.  But  Joseph  either  was  or  was  not  a 
thoroughly  sincere  and  steadfast  disciple  of  Jesus.  If 
he  was  a  disciple,  he  must  have  taken  upon  himself 
the  risks  incurred  by  every  professed  believer  in  the 
resurrection,  which  he  could  not  have  believed,  if  he 
had  surreptitiously  procured  the  report  of  it.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  his  allegiance  to  Christ  was  not  gen- 
uine and  stable,  he  would  certainly  have  sought  peace 
with  his  brethren  of  the  Sanhedrim  by  aiding  in  the 
detection  of  the  imposture.  In  fine,  there  was  no 
party,  there  was  no  individual  man,  who  had  any  thing 
to  gain,  any  possible  purpose  to  advance,  by  stealing 
the  body  of  Jesus  and  keeping  it  concealed.  This 
difficulty  stands,  then,  immovable  in  the  way  of  the 
theory  of  hallucination.  But  we  will  waive  it,  to  ex- 
amine the  theory  in  other  aspects. 

Visual  hallucinations  have   their    laws    and    their 
limits.     They   occur  rather  by  night  than   by  day, 


REPEATED  APPEARANCES  OF  CHRIST,        12 7 

They  are  not  apt  to  recur  under  altered  circum- 
stances. They  affect  individuals  rather  than  groups 
of  men.  They  do  not  run  at  the  same  moment  through 
large  bodies  of  men  in  broad  daylight,  so  that  five 
hundred  persons  falsely  think  that  they  see  the  same 
unreal  man  or  object  at  the  same  time.  They  are  not 
accompanied  by  imagined  long  conversations,  by  im- 
agined serial  transactions  with  their  object,  by  imag- 
ined sittings  at  the  same  table,  and  receiving  food 
from  his  hands.  Had  Mary  Magdalene's  story  been  the 
only  one,  it  would  certainly  be  conceivable  that,  in  the 
misty  dawn  and  with  tear-dimmed  eyes,  she  mistook 
the  gardener  for  Jesus.  But  it  is  impossible  to  apply 
the  same  solution  to  the  supposed  separate  appearances 
to  the  eleven  and  to  different  groups  of  disciples.  It 
is  impossible  that  Thomas  should  have  been  deceived 
as  to  the  reality  of  the  wound-marks  ;  for  uniform  ex- 
perience shows  that  the  hand  corrects  the  errors  of 
the  eye.  There  could  have  been  no  delusion  in  the 
conversations  put  o.i  record,  —  in  Christ's  expounding 
the  Scriptures,  calling  forth  the  expressions  of  love 
from  the  disciple  who  had  denied  him,  giving  his 
parting  commands  to  those  who  were  to  go  out  into 
the  world  to  preach  his  Gospel ;  nor  yet  when  his 
disciples  thought  that  he  was  sitting  with  them  at 
their  noonday  meal,  partaking  of  it  himself,  and  dis- 
pensing the  viands  with  his  own  hands.  Least  of  all 
could  the  five  hundred  brethren  have  been  deceived 
in  mass,  so  that  they  should  have  imagined  his  pres- 
ence, when  where  they  thought  he  stood  there  was 
only  empty  air.    Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that,  ac- 


128  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

cording  to  this  hypothesis,  the  only  ground  for  the 
strangest  series  of  delusions  on  record  was  the  mistake 
of  a  woman  whose  previous  insanity  (for  the  seven 
demons  must  denote  a  most  deplorable  condition  of 
mind,  whether  from  natural  causes  or  possession  by 
evil  spirits)  would  have  rendered  her  the  least  credible 
witness  in  the  whole  company  of  the  disciples.  She 
was  the  only  person  who,  unless  Jesus  really  appeared, 
saw  any  thing  out  of  which  the  phantasm  could  have 
taken  shape.  The  apparition  came  to  all  the  others 
when  they  were  on  the  road,  or  assembled  in  the  upper 
chamber,  or  fishing  on  the  lake,  —  when  there  could 
have  been  no  doubtful  appearance  like  that  which  is 
said  to  have  occasioned  Mary  Magdalene's  mistake. 
If  any  one  part  of  this  theory  is  weaker  than  the  rest, 
the  misapprehension  from  which  the  story  is  alleged 
to  have  grown  and  spread  is  the  weakest  of  all. 

We  pass  now  to  the  theory  of  suspended  animation 
and  apparent  death,  followed  by  resuscitation.  To  this 
we  encounter  at  the  outset  what  might  seem  to  any 
person  of  sound  ethical  discernment  a  fatal  objection, 
in  the  moral  character  of  Jesus.  If  he  had  not  died, 
he  knew  it,  and  he  himself  invented  the  figment  of  his 
resurrection.  How  would  this  story  tally  with  the 
character  of  any  of  the  great  men  with  whom  we  so 
often  see  him  named  by  those  who  admit  his  purity 
and  excellence,  yet  deny  the  tokens  of  his  divine  Son- 
ship  .-*  If  Socrates  had  swooned  and  not  died  on 
drinking  the  hemlock,  and  then  tried  to  make  his 
friends  believe  that  he  had  really  died  and  come  to 
life  again,  think  you  that  he  would  stand  before  an 


THE  RESURRECTION  NOT  A  FRAUD.  1 29 

admiring  world  on  the  pedestal  of  moral  elevation 
which  he  now  occupies  ?  Was  it  possible  for  him, 
being  the  man  he  undoubtedly  was,  to  lend  himself  to 
such  an  infamous  fraud  ?  What  shall  we  say,  then,  of 
him  in  whose  robe  of  righteousness  unbelievers  have 
striven  in  vain  to  detect  rent  or  seam  ?  If  we  are  to 
judge  of  a  man  by  his  previous  character,  under  cir- 
cumstances that  do  not  carry  with  them  their  own 
full  interpretation,  and  if  Jesus  was  but  a  man  and 
no  more,  certainly  no  man  ever  trod  the  earth  who  in 
precept  and  example  presents  a  more  perfectly  trans- 
parent honesty  and  truthfulness,  —  none  whose  whole 
aim  in  living  and  dying  was  so  manifestly  the  pro- 
motion of  virtue,  —  none  who  has  shown  so  intense 
an  abhorrence  of  shams  and  falsities. 

But  we  will  not  take  shelter  under  his  character. 
We  will  try  the  issue  as  if  he  had  been  morally  capa- 
ble of  enacting  a  falsehood.  It  is  said  that  death  by 
crucifixion  was  very  slow,  frequently  not  occurring 
till  the  second  day,  or  even  later,  and  that  at  the  end 
of  six  hours  there  is  at  least  a  strong  probability  that 
life  was  not  extinct.  To  this  suggestion  the  first 
answer  is  that  the  Roman  executioners  were  accus- 
tomed to  this  mode  of  punishment,  and  knew  the 
signs  of  death ;  that  they  were  not  the  men  to  let 
their  victims  escape  from  their  hands  with  their  work 
but  half  accomplished  ;  that  in  this  case  they  did  not 
see  sure  signs  of  death  in  the  two  malefactors,  though 
from  the  narrative  we  may  infer  that  to  an  unprac- 
tised eye  they  seemed  already  dead  ;  and  that  nothing 
but  absolute  certainty  on  the  part  of  the  soldiers  would 

6* 


130  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

have  deterred  them  from  employing  on  Jesus  the  bar- 
barous mode  of  disablement  to  which  they  had  recourse 
in  the  case  of  the  malefactors.  Then,  again,  we  have 
reason  to  believe  that  crucifixion  inflicted  fatal  injury, 
though  often  not  immediately  fatal.  It  could  hardly 
fail,  in  the  first  few  hours,  to  produce  a  congestion  of 
the  vital  current,  of  which  death  at  no  great  distance 
of  time  would  be  the  inevitable  result,  —  a  conges- 
tion, too,  which  would  of  itself  render  spontaneous 
revival  from  a  swoon  impossible. 

From  the  nature  of  the  case  we  should,  indeed, 
have  on  record  very  few  instances  of  the  recovery  of 
crucified  persons.  I  remember  but  one  —  there  may 
be  others  —  and  that  is  a  case  which,  though  much 
employed  by  non-believers  in  the  reality  of  the  resur- 
rection, bears  with  great  weight  of  argument  against 
their  hypothesis.  I  refer  to  the  case  described  by 
Josephus  in  his  autobiography.  He  says  that  he  was 
one  day  sent  by  Titus  to  Thecoa,  which  was  within 
sight  of  Jerusalem,  about  twelve  miles  distant  from 
it ;  that  on  his  return  he  found  many  captives  cruci- 
fied, three  of  them  persons  with  whom  he  had  been 
well  acquainted  ;  that  he  procured  of  Titus  leave  to 
have  these  persons  taken  down,  and  subjected  to  the 
most  careful  treatment  ;  and  that  two  of  them  died 
under  the  physician's  hands,  while  the  third  recovered. 
From  this  account  it  would  seem  that  the  crucifixion 
had  not  begun  when  Josephus  left  the  city,  and  the 
narrative  would  lead  us  to  suppose  that  he  was  absent 
but  a  few  hours,  certainly  not  overnight  ;  yet  two  of 
these  men  had  sunk  beyond  recovery,  and  the  third  sur- 


REALITY  OF  THE  RESURRECTION.  131 

vived  only  under  the  most  skilful  treatment  accessible.* 
The  inference  is  that  fatal  lesion  of  the  vital  organs  was 
wont  to  ensue  even  from  the  earlier  stages  of  this  hor- 
rible punishment.  Then,  too,  the  Roman  soldiers,  with 
characteristic  barbarity,  were  intent,  in  the  case  of 
Jesus,  on  exploring  the  seat  of  life  ;  and  the  serous  fluid 
that  followed  the  spear  wound  indicated  the  puncture 
of  the  pericardium,  which,  if  not  already  dead,  he  could 
not  have  survived.  Even  had  not  the  inevitably  fatal 
wound  been  given,  if  there  had  still  remained  inter- 
mittent flickerings  of  life,  these  must  have  been 
extinguished  in  the  close,  mephitic  air  of  the  tomb. 
Moreover,  if  continued  respiration  had  been  pos- 
sible, whence  the  strength  that  enabled  him  after 
thirty-six  hours  of  fasting,  bleeding,  fainting,  to  faise 
from  within  the  heavy  stone,  and  so  to  reappear  in 
the  eyes  of  his  friends  as  to  seem  not  snatched  from 
the  jaws  of  the  grave,  but  Conqueror  of  death  }  The 
double  walk  between  Jerusalem  and  Emmaus  on  that 
very  day,  and  all  the  traces  that  we  have  of  him  for  the 
ensuing  forty  days,  indicate  not  slow  and  painful  con- 
valescence, but  at  least  the  wonted  vigor  of  his  former 
life.  Bodily  weakness  would  have  rendered  him  utterly 
incapable  of  playing  a  part  in  such  a  drama  as  awaited 
him  for  its  chief  actor.  It  would  have  betrayed  itself 
to  the  disciples.  It  would  have  thrown  him  upon  their 
anxious  care,  instead  of  casting  them  at  his  feet  in 
wondering  awe.  The  disciples  were  not  the  fools 
they  are  commonly  assumed  to  have  been  by  those 
who  account  for  every  thing  that  looks  strange  in  the 

*  See  Appendix,  note  G. 


132  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Gospel  narrative  by  their  feeble  credulity.  They  wera 
sensible  men ;  disciplined  by  a  rough,  hard  life ;  familiar 
with  the  appearances  and  the  reality  of  things,  and 
amply  able  to  know  the  difference  between  one  who 
had  barely  evaded  and  one  who  had  surmounted 
death.  The  latter  they  believed  Jesus  to  be.  They 
had  no  interest  which  in  the  former  capacity  could 
have  been  served  by  proclaiming  him  as  their  Lord. 
To  protect  him  from  further  persecution,  to  nourish 
him  in  secret,  and  to  continue  their  kind  regard  for 
him,  was  the  utmost  that  could  have  been  expected  of 
them.  That  they  should  throw  away  all  that  this 
world  had  for  them  in  the  present  and  future,  to 
sustain  any  baseless  pretensions  of  his  or  of  their  own 
about  him,  would  have  been  sheer  madness. 

The  improbability  of  the  solution  which  we  are 
now  considering  seems  still  more  glaring,  when  we 
remember  that  Jerusalem  was  filled  with  keen  eyes 
and  active  brains  that  were  implacably  hostile  to 
Jesus  and  his  memory  ;  that  of  these  the  Sadducees 
at  least  had  neither  superstition  nor  credulity,  while 
the  Pharisees  can  have  had  very  little  (hypocrites  sel- 
dom have  much)  ;  and  that  the  same  interests  which 
had  succeeded  in  bringing  Jesus  to  the  cross  were 
still  more  concerned  in  crushing  out  this  rumor  of 
the  resurrection.  If  it  was  merely  resuscitation,  there 
must  have  been  numerous .  ways  in  which  the  real 
fact,  if  concealed  by  friends,  would  have  betrayed 
itself  to  unfriendly  eyes,  or  have  got  abroad  in  the 
gossip  which  can  no  more  be  muffled  or  choked  in 
any  community,  than  you  can  smother  fire  with  linen 
garments. 


THE  ASCENSION.  1 33 

Still  farther,  if  Christ's  was  merely  a  case  of  sus- 
pended and  renewed  animation  under  ordinary  physi- 
cal laws,  death  was  still  before  him,  and  friends,  or 
enemies,  or  both,  must  have  known  when,  where,  and 
how  he  died.  If  he  lingered  on  for  years  in  retire- 
ment and  obscurity,  his  disciples  knew  it ;  they  knew 
that  he  was  no  longer  the  man  he  had  been  ;  and  he 
would  have  been  a  dead  weight  on  their  faith  and 
their  zeal.  If  he  died  early,  they  knew  it,  and  if  he 
had  not  lived  imbecile  years  enough  to  cloud  the 
memory  of  his  better  days  and  to  eclipse  his  fame, 
they  would  have  recorded  his  final  departure  and  done 
honor  to  his  sepulchre  ;  for,  though  they  believed  his 
resurrection,  they  yet  could  not  have  anticipated  what 
we  so  clearly  see,  —  the  fitness  that  he  should  not  die 
again :  his  death  would  have  seemed  to  them  no  more 
strange  than  the  second  death  of  Lazarus  or  of  the 
young  man  of  Nain.  In  fine,  his  death  could  not  but 
have  been  a  known  event  and  a  matter  of  record. 
The  very  fact  that  he  disappeared,  and  "no  man 
knoweth  of  his  sepulchre  unto  this  day,"  adds  a  strong 
probability  to  the  story  of  the  resurrection,  inasmuch 
as  it  makes  the  ascension  probable  ;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  ascension  postulates  the  resurrection 
as  its  antecedent,  and  has  its  meaning,  its  appropri- 
ateness, its  didactic  power,  its  essential  place  in  the 
Christian  history,  only  as  the  sequel,  crown,  and  con- 
summation of  the  former  miracle.  The  ascension, 
inconceivable  as  a  delusion  on  the  part  of  the  disci- 
ples ;  as  a  figment,  beyond  the  easy  scope  of  their 
very  prosaic  imaginations,  adding  gratuitously  to  the 


134  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

heavy  draft  they  were  already  making  on  the  faith 
of  their  dupes,  and  contributing  no  one  element  of 
strength  to  their  cause, —  was  yet  the  very  mode  of 
leaving  the  world  which,  in  the  retrospect,  seems 
alone  in  harmony  with  a  passage  through  life  and  the 
death-shadow  like  Christ's.  It  was  fitting  that  he 
who,  alone  of  all  those  born  of  woman,  had  "  power  to 
lay  down  his  life  and  power  to  take  it  again,"  should 
not  even  seem  to  succumb  to  his  once  vanquished  foe, 
should  leave  upon  the  earth  no  trophies  for  death  to 
boast,  but  should  pass  on  to  his  heavenly  throne, 

"  His  human  form  dissolved  on  high 
In  its  own  radiancy." 

We  have  thus  seen  that  the  undoubted  belief  of  the 
primitive  disciples  in  their  Lord's  resurrection  can  be 
accounted  for  neither  by  delusion  nor  by  imposture, 
but  only  by  the  actual  occurrence  of  the  event.  It  is 
worthy  of  emphatic  remark  that  no  alleged  fact  in  the 
early  history  of  Christianity  has  had  so  prominent  a 
place  as  this,  or  has  so  constantly  invited  test,  inquiry, 
cavil.  The  church  in  all  time  has  been  ready  to 
stand  or  fall  upon  this  record.  The  resurrection  was 
commemorated  from  the  beginning  by  the  use  of  the 
first  day  of  the  week  for  Christian  worship,  at  the 
outset  supplementing,  then  superseding,  the  Jewish 
sabbath.  Its  anniversary  was  the  earliest  of  the 
Christian  festivals,  and  must  have  been  so  observed 
in  the  apostolic  age  ;  for  in  the  next  generation  we 
find  record  of  a  controversy  in  which  primitive  usage 
was  appealed  to,  as  to  the  proper  time  for  celebrating 


USES  OF  THE  RESURRECTION'.  135 

the  resurrection,  whether  always  on  Sunday,  or  on 
the  day  succeeding  the  paschal  full  moon,  whether  on 
Sunday  or  not.*  These  commemorations  might  be 
cited,  did  we  need  them,  as  historical  proofs  ;  for 
there  are  no  historical  records  so  absolutely  infallible 
as  rites  or  festivals  commemorative  of  single  events. 
It  is  impossible  that  such  observances  should  not 
have  originated  in  real  or  supposed  facts,  and  equally 
impossible  that  they  should  retain  their  form  and 
change  their  meaning.  I  refer  to  them  now,  however, 
not  for  their  direct  evidential  value,  but  to  show  that 
this  alleged  event,  from  the  prominence  thus  given  to 
it,  has  always  presented  a  broad  mark  for  attack,  and 
has  challenged  the  keenest  weapons  of  the  opposite 
camp.  I  have  exhibited  to  you  the  most  and  best  that 
these  assailants  have  been  able  to  effect.  They  have 
not  succeeded  in  casting  any  doubt  on  the  genuine- 
ness and  sincerity  of  the  primitive  belief  in  the  resur- 
rection, nor  have  they  produced  any  counter-hypothesis 
other  than  these  which  we  have  seen  to  be  so  baseless 
and  flimsy.  In  view  of  the  controversy,  we  are  enti- 
tled to  say  that  no  fact  in  history  rests  on  more  solid 
and  substantial  evidence  than  this. 

But  we  may  be  held  to  the  Horatian  rule,  "  Let  not 
a  God  intervene,  unless  there  be  an  occasion  worthy 
of  his  intervention."  The  uses  of  the  resurrection 
may  be  called  in  question  ;  and  though  God  is  not 
bound  to  account  to  man  for  what  he  does,  still  we 
may  reasonably  expect  that  man  shall  understand  in 
part  what  he  does  for  man,  and  those  who  deny  the 

*  See  Appendix,  note  I. 


136  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

resurrection  may  justly  claim  that  we  should  show 
how  and  why  it  was  needed.  It  may  be  said,  The 
resurrection  does  not  prove  immortality,  and  it  is  this 
which  we  want  to  have  proved.  I  answer  that  it 
demonstrates  all  that  we  need  to  know,  in  order  to  be 
sure  of  immortality.  Death  is  the  only  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  our  belief  of  eternal  life.  Could  we  follow 
with  our  apprehensive  faculties  those  who  die,  and  see 
them  living  on,  we  should  have  no  doubt  that  they 
would  live  for  ever.  The  gulf  once  safely  passed,  the 
heavenly  shore  once  reached,  we  should  have  no 
farther  fear  of  the  suspension  of  being.  Now  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  proves  that  death  is  not  destruc- 
tion ;  that  if  a  man  die,  he  may  live  again.  Jesus  did 
not  return  to  life ;  but  he  resumed  his  dead  body  to 
show  that  he  had  not  ceased  to  live,  and  that  no  soul 
born  of  God  can  ever  die  ;  and  we  know  not  how 
this  could  have  been  so  clearly  shown  in  any  other 
way. 

The  resurrection  was  also  needed  to  put  the  seal 
upon  Christ's  example,  and  to  demonstrate  the  safety 
aad  the  wisdom  of  following  it.  Whatever  purposes 
in  the  divine  counsels  his  death  may  have  served,  his 
earthly  life,  without  the  resurrection,  was  an  utter  fail- 
ure. If  we  may  in  our  thought  listen  to  the  conver- 
sation of  the  two  disciples  on  their  way  to  Emmaus, 
it  might  have  run  in  this  wise,  "  To  what  purpose  is 
this  life,  wasted,  thrown  away  1  A  little  yielding  would 
have  been  to  him  an  infinite  gain.  Let  him  at  the  out- 
set have  had  a  wise  reference  to  his  own  interest  ;  let 
him  have  made  a  few  harmless  concessions  to  popular 


THE  EXAMPLE   OF  THE  RESURRECTION.      137 

tastes  and  prejudices  ;  let  him  have  stepped  aside  now 
and  then  instead  of  marching  straight  on  in  the  face 
and  eyes  of  what  he  deemed  wrong  and  evil :  he  might 
have  gained  a  name  and  influence  ;  he  might  have 
been  efficient  as  a  reformer ;  he  might  have  raised  up 
a  strong  sect  among  the  very  rulers  and  Pharisees  ;  he 
might  have  lived  to  see  his  cause  triumphant,  and  have 
passed  away  in  old  age  with  universal  reverence  and 
honor.  But  now  all  that  has  come  of  his  uncompro- 
mising rigidness  of  principle  has  been  a  scanty,  lessen- 
ing and  discouraged  following,  the  general  hatred  and 
scorn,  a  hard  lot,  a  barbarous  doom,  a  felon's  death." 
This  was  sound  reasoning  on  the  day  when  he  slept 
the  death-slumber  in  Joseph's  garden  ;  and,  had  he 
not  awoke  from  that  slumber,  it  would  be  sound 
reasoning  now,  and  the  best  morality  of  our  race 
would  still  be  comprehended  in  that  incomparable 
maxim  of  worldly  wisdom,  "  Be  not  righteous  over- 
much ;  for  why  shouldest  thou  destroy  thyself  1 " 
When  the  powers  of  evil  have  hunted  Jesus  to  his 
destruction,  and  laid  him  low  in  the  dust,  they  cer- 
tainly have  for  the  time  the  upper  hand.  But  how  is 
all  this  changed  when,  like  the  midsummer  sun  on  the 
verge  of  the  Arctic  circle,  Jesus  just  dips  beneath  the 
horizon,  and  lo  !  from  the  very  twilight  of  his  setting 
bursts  the  glorious  dawn  of  his  resurrection  day  !  It 
now  appears  that  the  power  of  life  and  death  is  not  in 
the  hands  of  moral  evil  or  its  abettors  ;  that  they  can- 
not kill  ;  that  virtue,  integrity,  piety,  live  on  un- 
harmed through  death,  as  asbestos  in  fire  ;  and  that 
it  makes  no  manner  of  difference  whether  the  right 


138  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

seem  to  succeed  in  this  world  or  not,  while  it  has  the 
eternal  years  of  God  for  its  ascendancy  and  triumph. 
The  resurrection  has  thus  made  Christ's  example 
availing  for  all  who  pursue  the  right  with  earthly  and 
human  influence  on  the  adverse  side.  His  path,  had 
it  stopped  short  at  the  sepulchre,  would  have  won  no 
follower ;  but  now  that  it  stretches  on  in  a  line  of  liv- 
ing light  through  the  valley  of  the  death-shadow,  it 
has  drawn  a  multitude  that  no  man  can  number  of 
elect  and  loyal  souls  to  follow  him  in  his  death  to  sin, 
that  they  may  follow  him  in  heaven  and  for  ever. 

But  it  may  be  asked.  Why  should  the  revelation  of 
the  eternal  life  have  been  given  in  this  dramatic  form  t 
Why  might  not  a  verbal  assurance  of  immortality,  with 
unmistakable  tokens  that  it  came  from  God,  have  met 
the  needs  of  human  faith  and  virtue  equally  with  this 
scenic  transaction,  which  has  given  rise  to  so  much 
doubt  and  cavil  1  Why  should  a  physical  testimony 
have  been  borne  to  a  spiritual  truth }  I  reply  that 
immortality,  and  especially  resurrection,  that  is,  the 
essential  identity  of  the  being  that  lives  for  ever  with 
that  which  lived  and  died  on  earth,  is  primarily  a 
physical  truth,  and  may  therefore  admit,  or  even 
demand  external,  visible  proof.  If  eternal  life  be  the 
destiny  of  man,  it  is  because  God  has  made  the  vital 
organism  in  man  indestructible  by  material  forces. 
Had  it  been  made  destructible  by  those  forces,  there 
might  have  been  re-creation,  not  immortality.  Now, 
God  has  shown  us  in  the  resurrection  of  Christ  that 
human  life  is  not  destructible  by  the  agencies  that 
destroy  the  body,  and  has  thus  literally  made  the 


NEEDS  OF  THE  EMOTIONAL  NATURE.        139 

eternal  life  manifest  in  the  flesh,  and  more  clearly 
manifest  than  mere  words  could  have  made  it. 

Still  further,  verbal  revelation  addresses  the  reason 
alone  ;  but  in  the  matter  under  discussion  the  imagi- 
nation and  the  emotional  nature  are  profoundly  con- 
cerned. They  are  concerned,  are  influential,  and  often 
dominant  on  all  subjects  of  religious  belief  and  evi- 
dence. Moreover,  they  are  apprehensive  faculties  no 
less  than  reason.  They  have  their  own  tests  of  truth, 
no  less  authentic  and  trustworthy  than  those  employed 
by  the  reason.  The  dogmas  which  they,  in  their  legit- 
imate exercise,  repudiate  are  not  true,  though  logically 
proved  ;  the  dogmas  which  they  postulate  have  in  their 
favor  a  strong  prestige  prior  to  proof.  The  naturalism 
which  excludes  the  Christ-element  from  religion,  and 
reduces  it  to  abstract  propositions  and  principles,  finds 
no  point  of  attachment  to  humanity  except  through  the 
intellect.  The  imagination  spurns  it.  The  affections 
shiver  in  the  face  of  it. 

Now  these  portions  of  our  nature  have  their  special 
needs  and  cravings  with  reference  to  death,  and  what 
may  lie  or  may  not  lie  beyond  it.  There  is  in  many 
minds  a  shrinking,  even  to  horror,  from  the  physical 
phenomena  and  accessories  of  death, — the  ebbing  pulse, 
the  shortening  breath,  the  sad  surroundings,  the  con- 
scious nearness  of  the  plunge  into  an  untried  state  of 
being,  the  solitary  passage  through  the  death-shadow. 
It  is  a  feeling  which,  entirely  independent  of  belief, 
cannot  be  allayed  by  mere  belief.  This  condition  of 
the  imaginative  or  emotional  nature  can  be  soothed 
and  transformed  only  by  influences  of  its  own  order. 


140  CHRISTIANIT'Y  AND  SCIENCE. 

and  such  are  those  flowing  from  a  scenic  display  of 
the  conquest  over  Death  on  the  very  stage  where  he 
is  wont  to  move  in  kingly  guise.  All  these  acces- 
sories of  the  dissolution  of  the  body  —  in  their  mildest 
forms  so  appalling  —  were  clustered  in  their  direst 
aspects  about  the  cross  and  burial  of  our  Lord  ;  and 
they  are  all  transfigured  in  the  light  of  the  resurrec- 
tion morning,  —  symbols  no  longer  of  death,  but  of 
undying  life,  —  no  longer  of  the  soul  unclothed,  but 
clothed  upon,  —  no  longer  of  the  dismantling  of  the 
earthly  tabernacle,  but  of  the  opening  portals  of  the 
house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens. 
Who  that  has  watched  by  the  Christian  deathbed  has 
not  felt  moved  to  dwell  in  converse  and  in  prayer  on 
the  place  where  the  Lord  lay,  and  witnessed  the  sweet 
peace  and  the  hope  surmounting  fear,  as  the  dying 
believer  has  thought  of  that  far-off  sepulchre  in 
Judaea  while  he  was  sinking  into  his  own  grave  ? 

The  sensibilities  which  crave  this  support  are  not 
confined  to  weaker  minds,  though,  if  they  were,  we 
should  expect  to  find  them  only  the  more  tenderly 
cared  for  by  Infinite  Love.  They  are  often  keenest 
and  most  craving  in  the  very  minds  that  might  seem 
most  capable  of  satisfying  themselves  by  abstract 
truth.  I  know  of  no  more  explicit  and  touching  con- 
fession of  them  than  in  the  words  of  Dr.  Arnold, 
whose  firm  faith  and  clear  reason  might  have  seemed 
sufficient,  if  they  ever  are  sufficient.  He  says,  in 
writing  about  the  death  of  one  of  his  children : 
"  Nothing  afforded  us  so  much  comfort,  when  shrink- 
ing from  the  outward  accompaniments  of   death, — 


EVIDENCE  STRENGTHENED  BY  TIME. 


141 


the  grave,  the  grave-clothes,  the  loneliness,  —  as  the 
thought  that  all  these  had  been  around  our  Lord 
himself,  round  him  who  died  and  is  alive  for  ever- 
more." 

These  needs  become  solid  arguments,  when  we 
are  reasoning  about  Him  who  knoweth  our  frame, 
and  who,  as  a  Father,  pitieth  his  children.  If  from 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  spring  a  consolation,  peace, 
and  hope  which  even  his  words  could  not  give,  we 
have  added  confirmation  of  no  little  force  for  that 
crowning  miracle  of  power  and  mercy  on  which  the 
Church  is  built,  on  which  the  faith  of  these  Christian 
ages  has  rested  with  a  unanimity  of  consent  that  can 
be  affirmed  of  no  other  truth  or  fact  appertaining  to 
our  religion  or  its  history. 

One  closing  thought,  which  impresses  me  with 
great  force.  The  evidence  of  our  Lord's  resurrection, 
so  far  from  being  impaired  by  time,  has  gained 
strength  with  the  lapse  of  ages.  I  think  that  even 
with  regard  to  a  common  man  such  proof  as  we  pos- 
sess would  constrain  our  belief  in  his  resurrection, 
yet  not  without  a  vague  reluctance,  a  rebellion  of 
reason  against  reason,  of  strong  opposing  probabilities 
against  overwhelmingly  strong  testimony.  But  sup- 
pose that  the  man  whose  resurrection  was  thus 
attested  were  not  a  common,  but  a  unique  man  ;  one 
in  whom  had  been  witnessed  from  infancy  to  death 
an  unequalled  purity  and  loveliness  ;  one  whose  words 
had  seemed  to  those  who  heard  them  as  utterances 
from  heaven,  and  with  an  authority  to  which  men  had 
instinctively  yielded  as  divine  ;  one  who  had  not  his 


142  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE, 

like  in  the  whole  antecedent  history  of  the  world,  — 
then,  that  death  should  not  have  had  the  same  power 
over  him  as  over  other  men  would  not  seem  so  very- 
improbable.  Suppose,  still  further,  that,  as  the  cen- 
turies roll  on,  this  man,  said  to  have  risen  from  the 
dead,  proves  to  be  the  author  of  a  new  epoch  for 
humanity ;  that  his  influence  broadens  and  deepens 
from  age  to  age ;  that  the  very  tokens  of  his  ignominy 
become  more  glorious  than  the  badges  of  royalty,  and 
the  effigy  of  his  death  as  a  felon-slave  is  made  the 
most  precious  ornament  of  crowns  and  sceptres  ;  in 
fine,  that  not  only  God  in  his  revealed  purpose,  but  men 
—  his  opposers  no  less  than  his  adherents  —  give  him 
a  name  above  every  name,  —  then  does  his  culminating 
career  on  the  way  to  universal  empire  add  perpetually 
new  attestation  to  the  record  of  his  resurrection  from 
the  tomb  and  his  ascension  on  high. 


LECTURE  VII. 

ALLEGED  DEFICIENCIES  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  —  ITS  COMPLETE- 
NESS AS  TO  INDIVIDUAL  NEEDS.  —  REASONS  FOR  ITS 
SILENCE.  —  ITS  SILENCE  A  PROOF  OF  ITS  DIVINITY.  — 
ITS  TREATMENT  OF  COURAGE.  —  OF  PATRIOTISM.  —  OF 
FRIENDSHIP.  —  SUMMARY  OF  THE  EVIDENCE  FROM  TESTI- 
MONY. 

TN  my  Lectures  thus  far  I  have  given  you  an  outline 
•*-  of  the  grounds  on  which  the  testimony  of  the 
evangeHsts  as  to  the  life  and  character  of  Jesus  is 
worthy  of  confidence.  I  have  shown  you  also  that 
this  testimony  is  greatly  confirmed  by  the  contents  of 
the  record,  especially  by  the  consistency  of  the  mar- 
vellous and  else  incredible  portions  of  the  narrative 
with  the  facts  which  no  one  ventures  to  call  in  ques- 
tion. But  were  these  contents  defective,  —  did  they, 
while  they  profess  to  transmit  the  life  and  words  of 
an  all-sufficient  and  divinely  appointed  teacher  in 
morals  and  religion,  omit  many  things  which  might 
properly  be  expected  of  such  a  teacher,  —  did  they 
present,  on  the  magnificent  substructure  of  a  miracu- 
lous theophany,  only  a  paltry,  fragmentary,  and  unfin- 
ished work,  —  these  defects  would  reflect  back  doubts 
upon  the  testimony,  and,  if  they  could  not  annul  its 
evidential  weight,  they  would  at  least  impair  its  value ; 
for  a  religious  record  which  fails  to  satisfy  our  needs 


144  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

is  not  worth  our  investigation  or  defence.  Accord- 
ingly the  omissions,  the  blanks,  the  lacuncs  in  Chris- 
tianity and  its  records,  have  been  strongly  urged  in 
abatement  of  its  claims.  I  propose  to  present  them 
in  the  opposite  light,  and  to  draw  added  proof  of  the 
genuineness  and  authenticity  of  the  Gospel  record 
from  what  it  does  not  contain. 

As  to  the  range  and  quantity  of  its  professed  reve- 
lations, the  Gospels  certainly  contain  less  than  any 
other  sacred  books  with  which  we  are  acquainted. 
They  do  less  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  those  who 
would  extend  their  knowledge  beyond  the  normal 
scope  of  human  research.  They  are  silent  on  many 
'subjects  on  which  the  Koran  and  the  Mormon  scrip- 
tures enter  into  minute  detail.  They  do  not  approach 
the  brink  of  the  depths  sounded  in  the  sacred  books 
of  India  and  Persia.  They  have  not  satisfied  many 
Christian  sects,  which  have  built  outside  of  them 
cumbrous  systems,  bodies  of  divinity,  —  often  fitly  so 
called  for  their  lack  of  soul.  These  have,  indeed, 
derived  their  materials  from  the  Christian  Scriptures, 
but  less  from  Christ's  own  teachings  than  from  the 
Pauline  epistles,  including  that  to  the  Hebrews, 
whether  it  be  Paul's  or  not.  It  cannot  be  denied  that 
the  Christianity  of  Christ,  as  recorded  in  the  Gospels 
from  his  lips  and  life,  is  exceedingly  simple,  —  even 
meagre,  if  estimated  by  the  number  and  diversity  of 
its  topics.  I  believe  the  Christianity  of  the  Pauline 
epistles  to  be  equally  simple.  It  is  merely  the  appli- 
cation of  the  plain  doctrines  and  precepts  of  Christ 
to  the  exigencies,  questionings,  and  controversies  of 


CHRISTIANITY  MEETS  MAN'S  NEEDS.         1 45 

converts  who  had  a  great  deal  of  Judaism  or  heathen- 
ism still  clinging  to  them  ;  and  many  of  the  technical 
terms,  which  from  these  epistles  have  been  imported 
into  the  religious  phraseology  of  modern  Protestant 
churches,  and  have  given  rise  to  minute  dogmatic 
subtilties  without  number,  were,  as  used  by  the 
writer,  in  no  sense  Christian  terms  ;  that  is,  they  were 
not  occasioned  or  demanded  by  Christianity,  but  had 
their  sole  necessity  and  use  in  the  refutation  of  now 
obsolete  opinions,  through  which  Christianity  had  to 
cut  its  way  in  the  apostolic  age. 

But  let  us  look  for  one  moment  at  the  actual  fulness 
of  this  meagreness,  the  real  wealth  of  this  poverty. 
I,  as  an  individual  man,  conscious  of  a  nature  contain- 
ing more  than  flesh  and  blood,  and  of  wants  that 
remain  when  the  bodily  wants  are  satisfied,  go  to 
Christ  and  his  Gospel,  and  what  do  I  find  there } 
Ostensibly  all  that  I  personally  need.  Whether  it  be 
really  so,  will  be  our  inquiry  in  the  next  two  Lectures, 
which  will  be  devoted  to  the  test  of  experiment  as  ap- 
plied to  Christianity.  But  on  the  face  it  offers  me  what, 
if  genuine,  ought  fully  to  satisfy  me.  As  for  belief,  it 
presents  to  my  faith  a  paternal  Providence,  a  full  and 
righteous  retribution,  an  equally  full  and  complete 
redemption  from  the  penalty  of  repented  sin,  an  eter- 
nal life,  a  passage  through  death  to  endless  happiness 
on  conditions  which  I  cannot  misinterpret.  As  to 
my  conduct,  it  tells  me  just  what  I  ought  to  be  and 
do  toward  God  and  man,  how  I  am  to  discipline  my 
thoughts,  how  to  pray,  how  to  demean  myself  in  the 
various  relations  of  life  ;   and  there  is  not  a  single 

7 


146  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

occasion  or  exigency  on  which  it  does  not  furnish  the 
principle  from  which  I  may,  without  danger  of  error, 
construct  the  appropriate  rule,  and  determine  the 
course  of  action  which  it  demands.  As  for  motives, 
they  are  supplied  by  the  love  and  fatherhood  of  God, 
by  the  dying,  ever-living  love  of  Christ,  and  by  the 
powers  of  the  world  to  come,  —  motives  which,  if  au- 
thentic, are  of  unsurpassable  and  inexhaustible  force. 
I  cannot  say  that  I  need  any  thing  more.  With  this 
spiritual  apparatus,  if  genuine,  I  can  live  in  peace  and 
die  in  hope. 

But  there  are  a  thousand  inquiries  growing  out  of 
my  nature  and  position  in  this  world,  and  not  a  few 
suggested  or  intensified  by  my  faith  in  what  Christ 
has  revealed,  on  which  he  does  not  begin  to  satisfy 
my  curiosity.  I  would  fain  get  some  rounded  and 
complete  view  of  the  divine  nature,  while  clouds  and 
darkness  rest  on  many  of  its  aspects.  I  would  gladly 
account  for  evil,  physical  and  moral.  I  should  like  to 
know  more  clearly  the  precise  relation  of  Christ  to 
the  Eternal  Father.  I  should  rejoice  to  look  behind 
the  veil  of  death,  and  to  form  some  conception  of  the 
mode  of  being  in  the  future  life.  But  in  none  of 
these  particulars  does  Jesus  or  his  Gospel  give  us  the 
light  we  crave.  Let  us  draw,  if  we  can,  speech  from 
this  silence. 

Such  silence  would  not  have  characterized  a  pseudo- 
revelation,  the  result  whether  of  imposture  or  of  delu- 
sion ;  yet  it  is  precisely  what  we  should  expect  to 
find  in  a  divine  revelation.  The  first  of  these  propo- 
sitions is  almost  self-evident.     An  impostor  would,  of 


CHRIST  ALLAYS  CURIOSITY. 


147 


course,  have  adapted  himself  to  the  prevaiHng  appe- 
tency for  a  knowledge  of  things  beyond  and  above  the 
sphere  of  human  life.  In  no  other  way  could  disciples 
have  been  so  easily  enlisted  or  so  strongly  attached. 
Add  to  this  advantage  the  consideration  that  fraud 
cannot  be  detected  in  a  region  outside  of  human  ex- 
perience. No  one  comes  back  from  the  unseen  world 
to  confront  the  celestial  topography  of  the  Koran 
with  his  own  observation.  Equally  would  the  imag- 
ined revelations  from  the  brain  of  a  fanatic  have  been 
ultra-mundane  ;  for  religious  delusion  always  has  the 
realm  beyond  mortal  vision  for  its  field,  and,  so  far  as 
it  affects  one's  views  of  things  seen,  it  does  so  wholly 
by  the  lurid  light  cast  upon  them  from  things  imag- 
ined, but  invisible.  In  fine,  delusion  would  have 
expatiated,  and  fraud  have  sought  its  best  hunting- 
ground,  in  the  very  regions  of  thought  where  Chris- 
tianity gives  us  only  faint  and  vague  glimpses,  often 
such  as  rather  stimulate  than  appease  our  desire  to 
know.  Let  us  now  see  why  Christianity,  if  divine, 
should  have  remained  silent  on  these  themes. 

We  should  have  expected  a  divine  revelation  to 
remain  silent  where  fanaticism  and  imposture  will  not 
hold  their  peace,  because  restless  curiosity  is  thus 
reduced  to  a  minimum.  All  knowledge  raises  more 
questions  than  it  answers.  The  broader  the  visible 
horizon,  the  broader  is  the  invisible  circle  that  bounds 
it.  Every  truth  attained  abuts  upon  other  truths  still 
unattained.  Had  the  teachings  of  Christ  answered 
the  questions  which  we  most  desire  to  have  answered, 
the  answers  would  have  prompted  still  more  numerous 


148  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

and  difficult  questions.  Truth  is  infinite,  and,  were 
its  entire  realm  made  ours,  "even  the  world  itself 
could  not  contain  the  books  that  should  be  written  ; " 
while  nowhere  short  of  this  complete  conquest  would 
the  mind  of  man  pause  and  say,  "  It  is  enough." 
Had  every  inquiry  that  we  could  now  raise  been  fully 
satisfied,  the  region  of  the  unknown  would  only  seem 
more  vast  than  it  now  does,  and  from  longing  souls 
would  go  forth  only  the  intenser  demand  for  more 
light. 

It  may  also  be  maintained  that  the  imperfection  of 
our  knowledge  where  we  want  to  know  more  is  essen- 
tial to  our  best  spiritual  nurture.  Faith  has  a  tran- 
scendent value,  not  so  much  for  its  contents  as  for 
the  filial  spirit  of  which  it  is  equally  nurse  and  nurs- 
ling ;  and  we  can  imagine  a  fulness  of  vision,  an 
accuracy  of  proved  and  tested  knowledge  as  to  the 
great  truths  and  facts  of  the  spiritual  life,  which 
should  come  to  us  as  the  knowledge  of  terrestrial  facts 
and  of  daily  events  reaches  us,  but  by  means  of  which 
the  soul  would  forfeit  that  most  wholesome  discipline 
which  consists  in  trusting  where  it  cannot  see,  in 
taking  on  authority  what  it  cannot  know,  in  holding 
fast  the  clew  for  its  guidance  through  cloud  and  mist 
and  dense  darkness.  Certainly  this  trait  has  been 
most  conspicuous  in  the  greatest  souls  that  we  have 
known,  and  it  has  seemed  one  of  the  chief  elements 
of  their  greatness.  It  has  strengthened  the  fibre  of 
character,  and  at  the  same  time  has  given  to  the  in- 
ward life  a  repose  and  equipoise  which  cannot  come 
from  mere  knowledge,  but  are  born  of  that  faith  which 


MYSTERY  FEEDS  DEVOUT  THOUGHT.         1 49 

rests  on  a  wisdom  beyond  its  own.  Who  shall  say 
that  the  faith  thus  nurtured  may  not  be  as  essential 
in  the  future  life  as  now, — that  even  there  our  igno- 
rance may  not  grow  faster  than  our  knowledge,  —  that 
at  every  stage  of  our  eternal  progress  faith  may  not 
precede  clear  vision,  in  the  face  of  mysteries  still  un- 
revealed,  of  heights  and  depths  of  the  Infinite  Provi- 
dence not  yet  scaled  or  sounded  ? 

Hope,  too,  needs  a  certain  degree  of  vagueness,  no 
less  than  of  assurance,  to  give  it  full  working  force. 
Were  its  objects  too  distinctly  defined,  they  might 
make  us  impatient  of  the  toil  and  pain  through  which 
they  are  to  be  won  ;  while  their  very  dimness  urges 
the  aspiring  soul  ever  on  toward  those  serener  heights 
where  they  may  be  more  fully  apprehended.  The  Mo- 
hammedan paradise  is  described  in  minute  detail,  and 
the  result  is  indifference  to  life,  —  a  fatalism  which 
has  indeed  made  the  Moslem  armies  desperately  brave, 
but  has  at  the  same  time  checked  industrial  activity, 
arrested  progress,  given  despotism  its  holding  ground, 
and  paralyzed  all  the  energies  which  underlie  a  healthy 
social  and  political  condition. 

There  are  some  directions  in  which,  no  doubt,  the 
silence  of  Jesus  tends  to  cherish  devout  thought  and 
reverent  imagination.  It  may  be  of  untold  benefit 
to  think  where  we  cannot  know,  to  exercise  our  dis- 
carsive  powers  where  our  highest  conceptions  are 
entirely  inadequate.  Fruitless  cdhtemplation  on  the 
mysteries  of  the  Divine  Being  may  yet  feed  adoration, 
and  deepen  the  fountain  of  loving  piety.  Though 
mysticism  has  brought  no  new  truths  to  light,  it  has 


150  CHRISTIANITY  AND   SCIENCE. 

nourished  the  purest,  loftiest  devotion  ;  its  subtilties 
have  been  cleansing  and  elevating  ;  its  vague  termi- 
nology has  been  the  chariot  of  fire  on  which  many  an 
earth-dwelling  spirit  has  been  wafted  to  heaven.  The 
discussions  as  to  the  modal  union  of  the  Father  and 
the  Son,  though  they  have  established  nought  to  en- 
large the  bounds  of  that  knowledge  which,  Jesus  says, 
resides  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father  alone,  and  though 
they  have  often  been  only  a  fierce  and  bitter  logomachy, 
sometimes  giving  aim  and  sweep  to  more  material 
warfare,  have  yet  oftener  cherished  a  loving  intimacy 
with  Christ,  and  have  been  by  none  more  earnestly 
pursued  than  by  souls  at  peace  with  God  and  man, 
and  more  intent  on  following  Christ  than  even  on 
knowing  him.  Above  all,  we  have  reason  to  own  the 
unspeakable  blessedness  of  Christ's  silence  as  to  the 
future  life.  Other  founders  of  religions,  as  I  have 
said,  have  not  been  thus  silent.  They  have  con- 
structed paradise  of  what  they  deemed  the  choicest 
earthly  materials ;  and  their  heavenly  societies  have 
been  such  as  would  compel  every  pure  and  devout 
man  to  say,  "  O  my  soul,  come  not  thou  into  their 
secret  ;  unto  their  assembly,  mine  honor,  be  not  thou 
united."  But  here  Jesus  tells  us  nothing  ;  nor  yet  do 
we  have  any  intimations  from  his  apostles,  except  that 
in  the  glorious  epic  of  the  Apocalypse  —  a  poem, 
though  not  in  numbers  —  heaven  is  indicated  by 
heaping  together  —  designedly,  as  seems  to  me,  with- 
out coherence  or  mutual  compatibility  —  the  most 
magnificent  figures  which  human  language  can  fur- 
nish, not  to  describe  it,  but  to  pronounce  it  unde- 


HEAVEN  GROWS    WITH  OUR   GROWTH         151 

scribable,  —  to  reiterate  in  the  rapt  utterance  of  the 
seer  what  St.  Paul  says  in  simple  prose,  "  Eye  hath 
not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither  have  entered  into 
the  heart  of  man  the  things  which  God  hath  pre- 
pared for  them  that  love  him."  In  this  absence  of 
definite  knowledge,  imagination  has  free  range  and 
unrestricted  scope.  She  has  the  plumb-line  and  the 
measuring-rod  in  her  own  hands,  can  lay  out  her  own 
plot  in  the  garden  of  the  Lord,  erect  her  own  mansion 
within  the  golden  gates,  —  transferring  thither  all  that 
she  has  worthily  loved,  pursued,  desired  on  earth,  yet 
all  the  while  assured  that  her  highest  conceptions  are 
but  faint  types  and  dim  foreshadowings  of  the  far 
more  exceeding  glory,  when  for  fancy  there  shall  be 
open  vision.  Thus,  undoubtedly,  heaven  is  kept  more 
constantly,  glowingly,  lovingly  before  the  thought 
than  by  any  detailed  description,  were  such  descrip- 
tion possible.  What  is  of  still  more  worth  in  this 
silence  of  revelation,  the  heaven  of  our  thought  grows 
as  we  grow,  becomes  loftier  as  we  rise,  richer  as  we 
increase  in  soul-wealth,  always  in  advance  of  our 
clear  conception,  hovering  on  its  outermost  verge, 
yet  in  so  near  contact  with  what  is  best,  purest, 
noblest  in  our  consciousness  and  experience,  as  to 
give  vividness  to  our  hope  and  a  felt  reality  to  its 
objects.  Moreover,  the  ideal  of  heaven,  which  we 
thus  project  from  our  own  souls  and  fill  with  the  best 
that  is  in  us,  in  its  turn  reacts  on  the  soul  that  gives 
it  shape,  attracts  us  more  and  more  to  its  own  higher 
sphere,  and,  as  it  grows  richer  and  more  beautiful, 
endows  with  its  wealth  and  clothes  with  its  beauty 
the  whole  life  and  character. 


152  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Yet  another  reason  presents  itself  for  the  silence  of 
Jesus,  where  religious  teachers  in  general  have  been 
by  no  means  sparing  in  their  utterances.  On  many 
subjects  on  which  we  would  gladly  know  more,  Jesus 
may  have  told  us  little  or  nothing,  because  of  the 
poverty  of  human  language  and  its  inadequacy  to 
the  interpretation  of  the  mysteries  whose  solution  we 
crave.  The  teaching  power  of  words  is  limited  by  our 
own  consciousness  and  experience.  On  subjects  that 
transcend  this  limit,  language  assumes  one  of  two 
types.  It  either  runs  into  anthropomorphism,  and 
belittles  and  degrades  divine  things  to  human  meas- 
ure and  level  ;  or  else,  in  soaring  into  the  empyrean, 
it  is  arrested  midway  in  impenetrable  clouds  and  mists 
that  never  part.  Of  the  latter  tendency  we  find  no 
trace  in  the  simple,  transparent  words  of  Jesus  ;  and 
I  am  equally  impressed  by  the  reverent  care  which  he 
evidently  takes  to  shun  the  former,  of  which  the  exam- 
ples in  the  Old  Testament  are  very  numerous,  —  in 
part,  no  doubt,  on  account  of  the  meagreness  of  the 
Hebrew  vocabulary.  Christ's  method  of  teaching 
by  parables,  with  all  its  other  excellencies,  is  specially 
adapted  to  man's  condition  with  reference  to  the  sub- 
jects of  religious  curiqsity.  He  thus  suggests  con- 
ceptions of  the  divine  nature  and  providence  which 
transcend  the  scope  of  literal  language,  and  therefore 
of  clear  and  definite  thought,  yet  which  may  none  the 
less  move  the  affections,  inspire  the  will,  and  shape 
the  conduct.  For  instance,  the  parable  of  the  Prodi- 
gal Son  gives  us  views  of  the  divine  character,  tender, 
familiar,  loving,  which  we  could  not  put  into  literal 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  EVIL.  153 

language  without  irreverence,  like  that  which  we 
sometimes  detect  in  the  hymns  sung  by  persons  who 
have  more  piety  than  taste,  but  which  we  can  feel 
with  the  profoundest  gratitude,  and  recognize  in  those 
upliftings  of  the  soul  in  fervent  praise  when  we  "  mean 
the  thanks  we  cannot  speak." 

Let  us  look  for  a  moment  at  some  of  these  subjects 
on  which  Jesus  says  so  little.  Let  us  see  if  they  are  not 
obviously  and  intrinsically  beyond  the  range  of  any 
teaching  of  which  we  are  susceptible,  so  that  any  defi- 
nite utterance  with  regard  to  them  must  be  of  neces- 
sity unauthentic  and  spurious.  I  will  specify  but  two 
or  three  of  these  subjects,  though  I  might  present 
several  other  themes  of  curious  inquiry  and  specula- 
tion as  belonging  to  the  same  category. 

The  origin  and  ministry  of  evil  must  manifestly 
be  classed  under  this  head.  There  are  analogies  that 
enable  us  to  see  how  our  inevitable  ignorance  as  to  this 
whole  subject  exists,  but  not  to  remove  it.  Were  you 
to  explain  to  a  very  young  child,  in  the  best  words  at 
your  command,  the  entire  scope  and  bearing  of  those 
provisions  and  customs  of  civilized  society  by  which 
individuals  are  constrained  to  do,  forego,  resign,  and 
endure  unnumbered  things,  against  their  own  will  and 
private  interest,  for  the  general  good,  and  sometimes 
even  to  the  loss  and  detriment  of  the  present  and  of 
more  than  one  generation  for  the  benefit  of  remote 
posterity,  you  would  find  your  exposition  clogged  by 
words  and  phrases  which  had  never  come  into  the  child's 
vocabulary,  and  could  have  no  meaning  for  his  ear : 
the  view  in  space  and  time  would  be  broader  and  deeper 

7* 


154  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

than  his  four  or  five  years'  Hfe  would  enable  him  to 
take ;  and  the  only  result  would  be  that,  if  he  were 
docile  and  trustful,  he  would  receive  an  impression 
that  the  hard  things  of  which  he  often  heard  com- 
plaint would  somehow  and  at  some  time  issue  in  good. 
Still  less  can  we,  with  our  narrow  range  of  vision  and 
our  brief  earthly  life,  take  in  or  be  enabled  to  take  in 
the  entire  problem  of  evil,  which  comprehends  the 
universe  and  twin  eternities,  or  to  trace  the  vestiges, 
which  undoubtedly  exist  thick-sown  around  us,  of 
that  all-wise  and  all-merciful  optimism,  which  subsi- 
dizes suffering,  wrong,  and  sin  to  its  own  culmination 
and  triurhph.  Jesus  could  have  revealed  all  this  only 
to  a  mind  broad  and  profound  as  his  own,  and  to 
such  a  mind  probably  not  in  the  tongue  of  Greek 
or  Jew. 

Another  subject  on  which  for  a  like  reason,  no 
doubt,  Jesus  kept  silence,  is  the  nature  of  God.  He 
defines  his  relativity  to  man,  opens  the  door  of  access 
to  his  mercy,  and  manifests  to  us  as  much  of  him 
as  can  be  incarnated  in  perfect  humanity ;  but  that 
is  all.  And  must  it  not  of  necessity  have  been  all } 
Have  the  metaphysical  subtilties  of  the  Christian 
fathers,  the  schoolmen,  or  modern  theologians,  upon 
the  essence  of  God,  ever  expressed  or  conveyed  an 
intelligible  idea }  Undoubtedly  God  is  immeasurably 
more  than  man  has  seen  or  imagined;  but  our  con- 
ceptions of  him  are  limited  by  the  capacity,  the  recep- 
tivity of  our  own  natures.  He  may  have  attributes  as 
little  within  the  range  of  our  possible  conceptions  as 
fancy  or  metaphysics  is  within  the  comprehension  of 


INADEQUACY  OF  LANGUAGE.  155 

a  zoophyte.  Or,  on  the  other  hand,  this  partition  of 
his  being  in  our  thought  into  separate  attributes  may 
have  a  meaning  to  us,  only  because  our  own  inward 
being  at  best  so  lacks  coherency  and  unity.  Who 
knows  that  in  the  speech  of  heaven  there  are  sepa- 
rate names  for  divine  perfections  .''  It  may  be  that 
what  seem  to  us  distinguishable  attributes  are  mutu- 
ally equivalent  and  convertible,  as  are  the  imponder- 
able forces  of  the  material  universe.  But  we  are 
already  beginning  to  "  darken  counsel  by  words 
without  knowledge ; "  nor  can  we  ever  glance  a 
searching  thought  into  that  infinite  depth  of  being, 
without  admiring  the  wisdom  of  Him  who  taught  us 
to  say  merely  Our  Father,  and  has  inbreathed  into 
our  hearts  the  child-spirit  which  gives  that  title  its 
restful  and  beatific  meaning. 

In  this  connection  we  cannot  but  recur  to  the 
silence  of  Jesus  about  the  future  life.  For  the 
reasons  already  given,  I  doubt  whether  he  would 
have  told  us  more,  if  he  could.  But  could  he } 
What  life  is  ;  how  the  body  and  soul  interact  ;  what 
portion  of  their  joint  existence  and  functions  belongs 
to  each ;  how  far  finite  being  is  dependent  on  material 
conditions,  —  these  are  questions  which  we  not  only 
cannot  begin  to  answer,  but  the  very  terms  of  which 
have  no  definite  meaning  for  us.  How,  then,  could  any 
language  of  ours  be  made  the  vehicle  for  instruction 
as  to  the  philosophy  of  the  life  to  come,  its  mode  of 
being,  the  nature  of  the  passage  to  it,  the  relation  of 
our  present  bodily  existence  to  the  resurrection-life  t 
Had  Jesus  entered  upon  these  questions,  so  far  from 


156  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

throwing  upon  them  for  us  the  light  of  his  own  clear 
understanding,  he  would  only  have  involved  the  whole 
realm  of  the  future  in  deeper  obscurity.  We  may, 
then,  regard  the  bald  simplicity  of  his  words  of  eter- 
nal life,  the  entire  absence  of  descriptive  detail,  and 
the  confirmation  of  those  words,  not  by  reasoning, 
but  by  the  cardinal  and  fully  attested  fact  of  his  own 
resurrection,  as  among  the  strong  tokens  of  his  mis- 
sion as  a  teacher  sent  from  God. 

We  have  seen,  I  trust,  that,  so  far  as  Jesus  has 
failed  to  satisfy  the  curiosity  of  men  as  to  matters 
beyond  their  scope  and  sphere,  he  has  given  us  only 
added  reason  for  accepting  the  testimony  in  behalf 
of  the  records  of  his  life  as  authentic,  and  thus  for 
regarding  his  religion  as  divine.* 

But  omissions  on  the  plane  of  human  duty  also 
have  been  alleged.  It  has,  I  think,  never  been  denied 
by  unbelievers  or  misbelievers  that  the  morality  of 
the  New  Testament  tends  to  make  men  true,  pure, 
kind,  generous,  modest,  humble  ;  but  it  has  been  said 
that  it  fails  to  fit  men  for  the  daily  life  of  the  world, 
that  it  cherishes  gloom,  asceticism,  and  indifference 
to  the  worthy  objects  of  endeavor  and  emulation,  and 
that  it  ignores  such  virtues  as  courage,  patriotism,  and 
loyalty  to  friends.  While,  as  to  the  defects  which  we 
have  already  considered,  we  confess  the  impeachment, 
and  glory  in  it,  in  the  particulars  just  now  enume- 
rated we  deny  the  charge  of  omission  or  deficiency  in 
the  teachings  of  Jesus. 

As  regards  the  alleged  tendency  of  Christianity  to 

*  See  Appendix,  note  J. 


CHRISTIAN  SELF-DENIAL.  157 

asceticism,  we  repudiate  it,  and  challenge  proof.  There 
is  not  a  trace  of  this  tendency  in  the  Gospels,  except  in 
John  the  Baptist,  who  was  not  a  disciple  of  Christ,  and 
whom  Christ  pronounced,  in  point  of  spiritual  illumi- 
nation, less  than  the  least  of  his  disciples.  Jesus 
instituted  no  fast,  nor  is  there  the  slightest  proof  that 
he  ever  observed  any.  He  was  reproached  for  neg- 
lecting the  fasts  which  formed  a  part,  not  indeed  of  the 
Mosaic  religion,  —  for  that  has  no  fast,  —  but  of  the 
Rabbinical  refinements  upon  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  not  on  record  a  single  instance  of  his  declin- 
ing any  of  the  few  festive  occasions  on  which  he  was 
an  invited  guest  ;  and  asceticism  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Christian  Church  has  found  no  stumbling-block  so 
difficult  to  evade  or  surmount  as  the  story  of  the  mar- 
riage at  Cana. 

Jesus  indeed  enjoins  certain  forms  of  self-denial ; 
but  self-denial  is  not  so  much  a  duty  as  a  universal 
human  necessity.  There  is  not  a  child  of  five  years 
of  age  who  has  not  learned  this  ;  who  does  not  know 
that  he  cannot  have  all  that  he  wants,  but  can  supply 
his  foremost  wants  only  by  denying  himself  those 
which  he  holds  as  of  secondary  importance.  Now 
the  problem  that  Christ  solves  —  and  he  alone  solves 
it  —  is  how  so  to  deny  one's  self  inferior  benefits  as  to 
secure  the  largest  measure  of  superior  gifts,  by  yielding 
up  bodily  for  spiritual  goods,  selfish  pleasures  for  the 
higher  and  more  enduring  pleasures  of  beneficence, 
temporal  happiness  for  eternal  happiness.  Where 
there  is  no  conflict  between  body  and  soul,  self-indul- 
gence and  charity,  the  life  that  now  is  and  that  which 


158  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

is  to  come,  Jesus  enjoins  no  gratuitous  self-denial,  no 
sacrifice  for  the  sake  of  sacrifice.  Whatever  of  bodily, 
self-centred,  and  earthly  good  can  be  ours  without 
detriment  to  the  soul  or  to  our  fellow-beings,  he  would 
have  us  utilize  and  enjoy  to  the  full ;  and  he  best 
fulfils  the  law  and  most  truly  breathes  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  who  drinks  freely  and  with  full  draughts  at  every 
pure  fountain  of  joy  that  springs  by  his  life-path, — 
who,  with  every  power  and  faculty  of  body,  mind,  and 
soul,  takes  in  the  most  that  he  can  of  this  rich  and 
beautiful  world,  in  which  there  are  many  things  obvi- 
ously made  for  no  other  purpose  than  that  we  should 
enjoy  them  and  thank  God  for  them. 

There  was,  indeed,  a  great  deal  of  asceticism  in  the 
early  Church.  But  it  was  imported  from  the  dualism 
of  the  Oriental  philosophy,  according  to  which,  as  the 
outward  world  and  the  human  body  were  created  by 
the  Evil  Principle,  his  reign  was  to  be  abjured  and 
defied  by  the  mortification  of  the  flesh  and  abstinence 
from  the  good  things  of  this  world. 

As  regards  indifference  to  the  worthy  objects  of 
endeavor  and  emulation,  there  is  not  a  precept  of 
Jesus  that  has  any  bearing  in  this  direction.  He 
encourages  and  seconds  the  modest  industry  and 
humble  enterprise  of  the  apostles.  He  does  not,  as 
our  translators  have  it,  pronounce  an  indiscriminate 
ban  upon  the  rich ;  but,  with  reference  to  the  stress 
of  the  times  and  the  impending  persecution  of  the 
infant  Church,  he  speaks  of  it  as  hard  for  one  to  enter 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  or  his  visible  Church,  rich, 
because  enforced  poverty  was  then  the  price  at  which 


CHRISTIAN  COURAGE.  159 

alone  one  could  become  a  disciple.  There  was,  in- 
deed, something  like  community  of  goods  for  a  little 
while  among  the  disciples  at  Jerusalem  ;  but  there  is 
not  the  slightest  intimation  that  this  was  by  the  com- 
mand of  Christ,  or  as  a  matter  of  absolute  duty.  It 
was  merely  a  temporary  arrangement,  which,  as  may 
be  amply  proved  from  St.  Paul's  epistles,  was  never 
extended  beyond  Jerusalem  ;  and  it  probably  had  but 
a  very  brief  existence  there. 

As  to  courage,  there  is  not,  indeed,  a  word  of  Jesus 
that  can  sanction  the  aggressive  courage  which  is 
ready  to  incur  hazard  for  whatever  cause,  —  that  which 
arms  the  man-slayer,  the  duellist,  the  prompt  and 
stern  avenger  of  his  own  or  another's  wrongs  ;  that 
which  glories  in  war,  delights  in  carnage,  and  loves 
the  garment  rolled  in  blood.  This  courage  has  been 
the  greatest  of  curses  to  humanity,  and,  if  the  world 
shall  ever  be  thoroughly  Christianized,  it  will  be  looked 
back  upon  with  very  much  the  same  horror  with 
which  we  now  regard  cannibalism.  Not  that  I  believe 
the  time  will  ever  come  when  the  brave  men  who  have 
laid  down  their  lives  in  defence  of  their  country,  of 
freedom,  or  of  human  rights,  will  be  held  in  diminished 
honor ;  but  it  will  be  seen  that  the  vast  majority  of 
wars  have  not  had  a  particle  of  right  on  either  side, 
and  that  those  in  which  men  have  been  on  one  side 
urged  by  sacred  duty  have  none  the  less  had  their 
origin  in  atrocious  wrong.  But  the  courage  which 
dares  death  rather  than  disloyalty  to  one's  convictions 
of  truth  and  right  has  in  Christ  both  its  most  em- 
phatic  command   and   its   most   illustrious   example. 


l6o  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

What  can  be  stronger  than  "  Be  not  afraid  of  them  that 
kill  the  body,  and  after  that  have  no  more  that  they 
can  do  "  ?  Or  what  spectacle  of  courage  has  the  world 
seen  that  can  bear  a  momentary  comparison  with 
that  of  Him  who,  *'  travelling  in  the  greatness  of  his 
strength,"  had  the  cross  perpetually  in  view,  went  up 
to  Jerusalem  to  die,  and  by  his  own  words  and  deeds, 
at  every  stage  of  his  ministry,  stimulated  the  powers 
of  darkness  and  hastened  the  fatal  hour  ? 

As  regards  patriotism,  there  is  in  the  Gospel  no 
justification  of  that  blind  and  reckless  love  of  country 
professed  in  a  much-lauded  sentiment  of  one  of  our 
naval  heroes  :  "  Our  country,  may  she  always  be  right ; 
but,  right  or  wrong,  may  she  always  be  victorious  !  " 
Yet  we  find  in  Jesus  a  lov^e  of  country  intense  and 
tender.  One  of  the  only  two  occasions  on  which  he 
is  said  to  have  been  moved  to  tears  was  in  view  of 
the  impending  devastation  of  his  native  land,  and  the 
levelling  of  her  glory  with  the  dust.  Oh,  had  we  abound- 
ing among  us  patriotism  like  this,  —  to  weep  over  our 
national  sins,  to  deprecate  the  righteous  judgment  of 
outraged  Heaven  upon  our  time-serving  and  corrup- 
tion, our  intemperance  and  our  greed  of  gain,  our 
profligacy  and  infidelity,  —  there  would  be  hope  that 
in  this  our  day  we  might  give  heed  to  the  things 
belonging  to  our  peace,  before  they  be  hidden  from 
our  eyes. 

As  to  friendship,  even  if  we  can  appeal  to  no  pre- 
cepts of  Jesus  with  reference  to  the  mutual  duties  of 
those  bound  by  the  closest  intimacy,  we  can  at  least 
cite  his  example.     What  more  sacred  tie  can  there  be 


CHRISTIAN  FRIENDSHIP.  l6l 

than  that  indicated  by  his  words  to  the  apostles,  "  I 
have  called  you  friends  ;  for  all  things  that  I  have 
heard  of  my  Father  I  have  made  known  unto  you  "  ? 
In  that  little  circle,  too,  let  us  not  forget  that  there 
was  still  an  inmost  company  of  three;  and,  of  these 
three,  one  who  will  hold  to  the  end  of  time  the  spirit- 
ual primacy  of  the  sacred  college  as  pre-eminently 
"  the  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved."  Christ's  friendship, 
in  each  degree  of  intimacy,  was  manifested  by  tokens 
of  fellowship  and  affection  which  would  have  been 
inappropriate  to  a  union  less  close  and  confidential. 
But  the  expression  of  friendship  never  scanted 
thoughts  or  labors  of  love  for  the  outside  world.  On 
the  other  hand,  we  may  learn  from  him  that  love  gen- 
erates love,  not  only  in  him  who  receives,  but  in  him 
who  bestows  it.  There  is  no  such  laboratory  of  diffu- 
sive benevolence  and  efficient  philanthropy  as  a  home 
whose  atmosphere  is  love  ;  and  precisely  the  same 
office  is  performed  by  intimate  friendships ;  for  love 
grows  by  spending,  —  the  more  is  given,  the  more 
remains.  But  while  all  this  is  implied  in  the  teach- 
ings and  manifested  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  there  was  no 
need,  and  there  never  is  need,  of  special  precepts  for 
the  cultivation  of  friendship.  It  cannot  grow  to  order, 
or  be  formed  by  rule.  It  springs  up  of  necessity 
where  there  are  warm  hearts,  with  common  proclivi- 
ties, tastes,  and  interests,  and  especially  where  there 
are  hearts  united  by  the  love  of  God  and  in  the  work 
which  he  has  given  them  to  do.  There  was  in  Christ's 
time  no  lack  of  friendship,  whether  between  good  men 
or  bad  men  ;  nor  can  there  ever  be.     If  Christ  had 


1 62  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

given  any  rules  for  friendship,  they  would  probably 
have  been  limitations,  in  the  spirit  in  which  Cicero 
writes,  "  If  all  things  which  friends  desire  are  to  be 
done,  such  alliances  should  be  deemed  conspiracies, 
not  friendships."  *  But  these  limitations  are  included 
in  the  paramount  law  of  love  and  service,  first  of  all  to 
God,  and  to  the  dearest  among  kindred  and  friends, 
only  in,  and  to,  and  through  him. 

I  have  thus  enumerated,  I  believe,  all  the  deficien- 
cies with  which  the  morality  of  Christ  and  his  Gospel 
has  been  charged,  and  have  shown  you  that  in  these 
its  actual  deficiency  consists  in  shunning  excesses  and 
abuses. t 

I  must  here  close  the  first  division  of  my  proposed 
plan.  My  endeavor  has  been  to  demonstrate  that,  as 
regards  the  evidence  of  testimony,  Christianity  occu- 
pies at  least  as  high  a  position  as  the  truths  of  science. 
I  have  shown  you  that  our  four  Gospels  can  be  traced 
by  quotations,  references,  descriptions,  and  coincidences 
as  far  back  as  the  first  century  of  our  era ;  that  they 
have  borne  from  the  beginning  the  names  of  their  now 
reputed  authors,  without  the  vestige  of  a  doubt  as  to 
their  authorship  ;  that  those  writers  had  the  means  of 
knowing  the  truth  as  to  the  materials  of  their  record  ; 
and  that  they  had  no  conceivable  motive  for  false  testi- 
mony in  those  matters,  but  every  conceivable  earthly 
motive  for  suppressing  what  they  report  as  facts.  I 
have  shown  you  that,  as  St.  Paul  evidently  believed  all 

*  "  Si  omnia  facienda  sunt,  quaa  amici  velint,  non  amicitiae  tales, 
sed  conjurationes  putandae  sunt." 
t  See  Appendix,  note  K. 


CUMULATIVE  ARGUMENT  FROM  TESTIMONY,     1 63 

that  the  evangehsts  recorded  about  Jesus,  we  get  rid 
of  no  difficulties  by  resorting  —  even  would  documen- 
tary evidence  permit  this  —  to  the  hypothesis  of  the 
gradual  and  slow  growth  of  the  Messianic  idea,  and 
its  full  development  in  a  later  than  the  apostolic  age. 
I  have  adduced  Jesus  as  his  own  witness,  maintaining 
that  his  actual  existence  alone  can  account  for  the 
Gospels.  I  have  given  an  adequate  explanation  of 
the  peculiar  phenomena  of  the  first  three  Gospels, 
and  have  exhibited  the  special  grounds  that  we  have 
for  maintaining  the  genuineness  of  the  fourth  Gospel. 
I  have  attempted  to  prove  that  the  miraculous  element 
in  the  history  of  Christ  is  in  entire  harmony  with  the 
rest  of  the  narrative,  and  therefore  not  to  be  rejected 
or  doubted,  if  that  narrative  as  a  whole  be  fully  authen- 
ticated. I  have  shown  that  the  actual  resurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  method  of  accounting  for  the 
record  of  that  event  as  it  stands,  for  the  undoubted 
belief  in  it  on  the  part  of  the  primitive  disciples,  and 
for  the  influence  of  that  belief  in  the  early  history  of 
the  Christian  Church.  Finally,  in  the  present  Lecture 
I  have  sought  confirmation  for  this  testimony  in  be- 
half of  the  Gospels,  from  the  alleged  omissions  and 
defects  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 

Now  what  I  would  maintain  is  that  the  facts  re- 
corded in  the  Gospels  are  established  on  at  least  as 
trustworthy  testimony  as  are  the  facts  remote  in  time 
and  space  to  whose  testimony  scientific  men  are  con- 
stantly giving  credence,  and  on  which  the  science  of 
the  present  day  is  based.  This  last-named  testimony 
I  am  by  no  means  disposed  to  deny,  doubt,  or  under- 


164  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

value.  I  rejoice  that  it  is  so  rich,  so  clear,  so  various 
in  its  sources,  yet  so  harmonious  in  its  utterances.  I 
bless  God  that  he  has  thus  made  numberless  men 
who  had  no  conception  of  scientific  truth  tributary  to 
its  establishment  and  verification,  —  that  the  stones 
of  the  temple  of  knowledge  have  been  quarried, 
squared,  and  polished  by  so  many  simple,  honest 
men,  who  knew  not  what  a  great  work  they  were 
doing.  But  there  is  no  principle  on  which  their 
testimony  can  be  pronounced  valid,  and  that  of  the 
early  Christian  witnesses  untrustworthy.  We  must 
accept  both,  or  else  reject  both,  and  include  science 
and  Christianity  in  indiscriminate  scepticism  or  denial. 
God  has  joined  the  two  in  the  witness  for  their  au- 
thenticity;  what  he  hath  joined  man  may  not  put 
asunder. 


LECTURE  VIII. 

II.  EXPERIMENT.  —  EXPERIMENT  AS  A  TEST  OF  SCIENTIFIC 
TRUTH.  —  CLAIMED  AS  A  TEST  BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF 
CHRISTIANITY.  —  CHRISTIANITY  AS  A  FACTOR  IN  THE 
FORMATION  OF  CHARACTER.  —  AS  A  SOURCE  OF  ENERGY. 
—  AS  A  SUPPORT  IN  TRIAL.  —  AS  SUSTAINING  HOPE  IN 
DEATH.  —  CUMULATIVE    ARGUMENT    FROM    EXPERIMENT. 

T  SAID  in  my  first  Lecture  that  science  and  Chris- 
-^  tianity  alike  depend  for  their  evidence  on  testi- 
mony, experiment,  and  intuition.  I  have  compared 
them  as  regards  testimony.  We  will  pass  now  to 
experiment.  This  bears  a  most  important  part  in 
the  ascertainment  and  verification  of  scientific  truth. 
In  some  of  the  sciences,  as  in  chemistry,  for  instance, 
it  is  at  once  guide,  discoverer,  and  test.  The  ultimate 
reason  why  such  and  such  results  take  place  no  mortal 
can  know  ;  yet  no  one  hesitates  to  infer  from  these  re- 
sults universal  laws  of  nature,  and  in  many  instances 
a  single  experiment  has  been  sufficient  to  establish  a 
principle  of  large  scope  and  profound  significance.  It 
is  by  experiment  alone  that  the  sciences  of  heat,  light, 
electricity,  and  magnetism  have  been  created,  and 
what  are  called  their  principles  or  laws  are  but  the 
outcome  of  individual  experiments  generalized.  A 
large  part  of  the  science  of  human  and  animal  physi- 
ology has  been  built  solely  on  experiment. 


1 66  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Christianity  claims  to  be  tested  by  experiment. 
Its  Founder  repeatedly  proposed  this  test  to  his  dis- 
ciples, and  gave  them  clearly  to  understand  that  the 
growth  and  honor  of  his  religion  would  be  contingent 
on  the  manifestation  of  its  efficacy  in  their  lives 
and  characters.  Experiment  of  Christianity  has  been 
made  for  more  than  eighteen  centuries.  Its  claims 
have  been  put  to  the  test.  Men  have  resorted  to  it 
for  the  fulfilment  of  its  promises.  The  correspond- 
ence of  its  working  with  its  professions  has  been 
tried  at  every  point.  Has  it  succeeded  t  Or  has  it 
failed  }  This  is  a  fundamental  question,  even  if  the 
evidence  of  testimony  be  unimpeached.  Testimony 
might,  indeed,  establish  the  authenticity  of  the  Gos- 
pels, and  thus  prove  that  Christianity  was  of  divine 
origin.  But  so,  we  believe,  was  Judaism.  So,  the 
Mohammedans  say,  were  both  Judaism  and  Christi- 
anity, no  less  than  the  doctrine  of  their  own  prophet. 
What  we  Christians  would  fain  prove,  if  we  can,  is  not 
merely  that  Christianity  is  a  divinely  given  religion, 
but  that  it  holds  the  foremost  place  among  all  relig- 
ions ;  and  that  place  it  can  make  good  only  by  what 
it  does.  Its  paramount  worth  can  be  tested  by  ex- 
periment alone.  The  experimental  test  of  Christianity 
may  be  considered,  first,  as  regards  the  influence  of 
this  religion  on  individual  character ;  and,  secondly, 
in  its  action  on  society,  civilization,  government,  and 
the  collective  character  and  history  of  nations.  The 
former  of  these  divisions  will  suffice  for  the  present, 
the  latter  will  be  the  subject  of  the  next  Lecture. 
Christianity  purports  to  be  a  guide  to  virtue,  a 


CLAIMS  OF  JESUS.  167 

fountain  of  inward  strength,  an  unfailing  support  and 
solace  in  trial  and  grief,  a  beatific  influence  under  the 
shadow  of  death  ;  and  in  these  particulars  it  claims 
pre-eminence  over  all  other  forms  of  belief  and  cul- 
ture. Its  Founder  urges  in  his  own  behalf  these 
paramount  claims  in  such  terms  as  their  truth  alone 
can  justify.  "I  am  the  light  of  the  world:  he  that 
followeth  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness,  but  shall 
have  the  light  of  life."  "  I  will  give  you  a  mouth  and 
wisdom,  which  all  your  adversaries  shall  not  be  able 
to  gainsay  nor  resist."  "  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  my 
peace  I  give  unto  you  :  not  as  the  world  giveth,  give 
I  unto  you."  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and 
are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  "  I  give 
unto  them  [my  sheep,  or  followers]  eternal  life  ;  and 
they  shall  never  perish,  neither  shall  any  pluck  them 
out  of  my  hand."  "  He  that  heareth  my  word  .  .  . 
hath  everlasting  life,  and  shall  not  come  into  condem- 
nation ;  but  is  passed  from  death  unto  life." 

It  is  of  no  small  evidential  value  that  these  words 
have  for  so  many  centuries  been  familiarly  read  by 
wise  and  discreet  men  ;  that  they  are  read  to-day  by 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  sensible  men  and  women 
all  over  the  civilized  world,  without  surprise  or  repug- 
nancy, without  their  being  regarded  as  misplaced  or 
extravagant,  —  as  indicating  audacity  or  insane  self- 
exaltation.  I  doubt  whether  there  has  lived  any  other 
man,  in  whose  saying  these  things  persons  of  superior 
intelligence  and  culture  would  acquiesce.  I  do  not 
find  that  the  founders  of  other  religions  —  not  even 
Mohammed  —  have  ever  professed  in  their  own  per- 


l68  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

sons   to  stand  in  such  direct  beneficent  relations  to 
their  disciples.    Certainly  we  read  nothing  like  this  in 
Moses  or  the  prophets,  nor  yet  in  the  words  of  com- 
fort and  strength  addressed  by  the  Christian  apostles 
to  their  converts.     Had  Socrates  talked  in  this  way 
about  himself,  the  hemlock  would  have  been  brewed 
for  him  when  he  first  began  to  teach,  and  his  best 
friends  would  have  forced  the  cup  upon  him,  unless 
they  had  given  him  hellebore  instead,  as  to  a  madman. 
Even  the  sages  of  our  own  time,  whose  oracular  utter- 
ances profess  to  comprehend  and  exceed  the  wisdom 
of  all  antecedent  centuries,  have  never  yet  said  such 
great  things  about  themselves  as  Christ  said  ;  and 
were  they  to  say  them,  it  would  completely  disen- 
chant   their    disciples.     We   are   not   surprised   that 
Jesus  Christ  should   have   spoken   thus,  simply   be- 
cause  many   know,   or    think    they    know,    that    he 
uttered  no  more  than  they  have  themselves  experi- 
enced in  their  relation  to  him,  and  many  more  think 
that  they  have  witnessed  in  their  friends  and  neigh- 
bors phenomena  corresponding  with  such  experience. 
Let  us  look  at  these  claims  in  detail. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Christ  claims  the  ability 
to  form  the  very  highest  style  of  moral  character,  the 
most  symmetrical  grouping  of  virtues  and  graces,  the 
most  consummate  spiritual  beauty  of  which  the  soul 
of  man  is  capable.  This  claim  certainly  seems  to 
justify  itself  on  a  superficial  view  of  the  moral  history 
of  our  race.  If  we  compare  good  men  before  Christ 
with  good  men  in  and  through  Christ,  there  can  be  no 
possible  doubt  that  the  latter  are  by  far  the  better.   Of 


CHRISTIAN  STYLE   OF  CHARACTER.  169 

patriarchs  and  prophets  under  the  Mosaic  dispensation, 
those  whose  lives  are  described  with  any  degree  of 
fulness  have,  indeed,  single  traits  of  devotion,  fidelity, 
or  patriotism,  which  make  their  memory  illustrious  ; 
yet  they  manifest  decidedly  sub-Christian  characters, 
and  even  of  Abraham,  Jacob,  Samuel,  David,  Nehe- 
miah,  it   might   be  said,  "The   least   really   in   and 
thoroughly  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  (or  Christ)  is 
greater  than  he."     Still  more  can  we  say  the  same  of 
nearly  all  the  best  men  of  classic  antiquity  ;  for  in 
them  we   generally  see  splendid   merits  allied   with 
equally    conspicuous    faults.      Thus,   above    all    the 
ancients    outside   of    Judaea    who   preceded    Christ, 
Cicero  makes  himself   the  object  of  sincere,  almost 
affectionate   admiration  to   his  diligent   reader ;   yet 
his  portrait  is  sadly  defaced  by  a  vanity  of  which  a 
single  sitting  at  the  feet  of  Jesus  would  have  cured 
him,  and  by  a  lack  of  sincerity  and  consistency  which 
showed  how  sadly  he  needed  the  tonic  power  of  the 
Gospel.    It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the  two  illustrious 
men  of  classic  fame  who  seem  most  Christianlike,  Plu- 
tarch and  Epictetus,  both  flourished  after  the  Gospel 
had  been  extensively  diffused.     I  do  not  imagine  that 
they  knew  any  thing  definite  about  Christianity :   if 
they  had,  they  would  have  been  Christians.     But  the 
spirit  was  in  the  air  ;  the  tone  of  Christian  sentiment 
had  penetrated  farther  than  any  fact  or  dogma  of  the 
new  religion  ;    and  there  were  receptive   souls  that 
caught  it,  without  knowing  whence  or  how.     To  re- 
turn from  this  digression,  if  digression  it  be  :  John 
and  Paul  not  only  represent  higher  types  of  character 

8 


170  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

than  we  find  in  the  entire  Jewish  and  Gentile  world 
before  Christ,  —  types,  too,  which  had  no  antetype 
except  the  Master  whom  they  called  divine ;  but  they 
stand  before  us  still  as  unsurpassed,  if  equalled.  The 
only  account  that  they  could  give  of  themselves  was 
that  through  contemplation  of  the  image  of  God  in 
Christ  they  had  grown  into  the  same  image  ;  and,  if 
they  were  and  still  are  pre-eminent,  we  have  no  way 
of  accounting  for  it  but  that  they  were  proof-impres- 
sions of  that  image  before  it  had  become  dimmed  by 
time,  or  had  suffered  the  partial  obscuration  inevi- 
table on  its  being  transferred  from  a  living  form  to  an 
uttered  story,*  and  then  from  an  uttered  story  to  a 
written  book. 

The  post-Christian  history  of  human  virtue  presents 
precisely  the  same  contrast  between  Christian  and 
extra-Christian  excellence,  which  we  have  already 
traced.  Let  any  impartial  person  draw  up  a  list  of 
the  eminently  good  men  and  women  who  have  left 
their  enduring  record  within  the  last  eighteen  cen- 
turies, or  are  writing  it  now,  and  then  divide  the 
names  on  the  list  into  Christian  and  non-Christian, 
—  the  muster-roll  of  the  latter  would  be  exceedingly 
meagre,  and  would  probably  include  none  of  the  pre- 
eminent ;  and  I  doubt  whether,  even  in  this  lesser 
catalogue,  we  should  find  any  whose  characters  had 
not  been  formed  under  Christian  influences.    Among 

*  The  peculiar  circumstances  of  St.  Paul's  conversion,  and  the 
facts  in  his  own  psychological  experience  to  which  he  makes  repeated 
reference,  placed  him  virtually  in  the  position  with  reference  to  Jesus 
occupied  by  none  else  but  his  immediate  disciples. 


CHRISTIAN  VIRTUE.  171 

those  who  in  our  own  time  and  land  are  understood  to 
be  non-believers  in  historical  Christianity,  there  are 
not  a  few  whose  characters  cannot  but  win  abounding 
reverence  and  love  ;  but  of  these  I  know  not  one  who 
had  not  his  nurture  in  a  Christian  family,  and  some  of 
the  more  distinguished  among  them  were  in  early  life 
members  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  were  then  cer- 
tainly as  pure,  amiable,  and  philanthropic  as  they  are 
now,  I  doubt  whether  you  can  point  to  a  single  per- 
son that  has  grown  up  under  the  discipline  of  a  scep- 
tical philosophy,  whom  you  would  designate  as  a  fit 
example  for  those  whose  characters  are  now  in  the 
process  of  formation. 

Christian  virtue  is  a  peculiar  type,  and  peculiar  for 
its  comprehensiveness.  The  title  over  the  cross  was 
written  in  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin  ;  and  it  is  an 
index  of  the  broad  spiritual  culture  of  those  who  have 
become  what  they  were  or  are  under  the  nurture  of 
Him  who  was  then  termed  in  derision  the  King  of  the 
Jews.  The  Hebrew  spirit  was  distinctively  religious ; 
but,  because  divorced  from  refining  influences  and 
from  large  opportunities  for  secular  activity,  it  had 
been  narrowed  and  etiolated  into  a  stupid  and  super- 
stitious ritualism.  The  Grecian  mind  was  in  the 
closest  sympathy  with  material  beauty,  art,  poetry, 
and  song ;  it  bore  the  imprint  of  the  most  thorough 
aesthetic  discipline  ;  but,  destitute  of  religious  ideas 
on  which  faith  and  reverence  could  repose,  and  at  the 
same  time  feeble  and  capricious,  it  had  degenerated 
into  gross  sensualism.  The  early  Roman  state  was 
pervaded  by  the  spirit  of  law,  and  thence  of  force; 


172  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

but,  for  lack  of  religious  discipline  and  elegant  cul- 
ture, it  had  become  rapacious,  despotic,  sanguin- 
ary. It  is  the  glory  of  Christianity  to  have  restored 
these  effete  elements  of  character,  and  blended  them 
in  its  nurture.  The  developed  Christian  character 
has  the  intense  religiousness  of  the  Hebrew  psalmists 
and  seers  ;  however  destitute  of  the  wonted  means  of 
culture,  it  takes  on,  or  rather  in,  a  culture  of  its  own, 
sweet,  gentle,  kind,  spiritual ;  and  it  submits  itself  to 
law,  not,  indeed,  as  to  a  hard  yoke,  but  as  to  a  loving 
service,  while  law  gives  it  a  forceful  energy,  which 
pervades  the  whole  life-work,  and  makes  it  constant, 
loyal,  noble.  These  elements  are  blended,  unified  in 
the  Christian,  because  they  were,  each  and  all,  perfect 
in  the  Master  whom  he  owns  and  follows,  who  was 
"King  of  the  Jews," — the  love  and  worship  of  God, 
his  purple  robe  and  diadem  ;  more  than  Grecian  in  the 
grace  and  amenity  of  his  spirit  and  his  walk  among 
men ;  more  than  Roman  in  the  entireness  with  which 
he  made  himself  the  incarnate  law  of  God,  and  alone, 
among  those  born  of  woman,  finished  the  whole  work 
Virhich  God  gave  him  to  do.  You  can  trace  these 
elements  in  all  the  exemplars  of  Christian  excellence, 
—  not  only  in  those  who  fill  high  places  and  wield  an 
extended  influence,  but  equally  in  the  most  lowly  and 
unprivileged  spheres.  Wherever  in  humble  and  ob- 
scure life  you  find  one  of  untaught  grace  in  speech 
and  mien,  and  rigidly  faithful  in  the  least  requirements 
of  duty,  —  when  you  look  farther,  you  trace  also  the 
Hebrew  religiousness,  only  of  the  Zion  rather  than  the 
Sinai  type,  and  you  may  "  take  knowledge  "  of  such  a 
one  that  he  has  been  with  Jesus. 


CHRISTIAN  EXPERIENCE,  173 

In  experimental  philosophy  there  are  various  ways 
of  testing  the  properties  of  a  substance  under  trial. 
One  question  is,  Does  it  show  its  identity  and  hold 
its  own,  when  combined  with  various  substances,  in 
different  proportions,  and  under  altered  conditions  ? 
Thus  the  presence  of  iron  is  detected  by  infallible 
tokens  alike  in  unnumbered  compound  mineral  sub- 
stances, in  the  sap  of  various  plants,  in  the  human 
blood,  in  the  rays  of  the  spectrum,  —  in  all  unchanged 
in  its  essential  characteristics.  In  like  manner  Chris- 
tian culture  has  been  associated  with  every  other 
conceivable  element  of  culture,  and  in  all  these  com- 
binations it  preserves  the  same  essential  properties 
of  piety,  sweetness,  and  strength,  —  not,  indeed,  in  the 
perfect  equipoise  which  we  behold  in  the  one  great 
Exemplar,  but  in  a  sufficient  measure  to  indicate  their 
source,  and  to  discriminate  them  from  traits  elsewhere 
derived  and  otherwise  nourished. 

The  experimental  philosopher,  again,  simplifies  his 
experiments,  —  tests  the  substance  in  hand  with  a  sin- 
gle other  substance,  carefully  eliminating  all  foreign 
elements.  We  have  had  abundant  opportunity  to  sub- 
ject Christianity  to  this  test  also.  It  has  been  applied 
to  the  human  rasa  tabula^  the  unpreoccupied  mind, 
the  moral  nature  that  has  had  no  previous  culture,  the 
little  child,  the  ignorant  adult,  the  untutored  savage : 
it  has  been,  in  such  cases,  the  only  training,  subdu- 
ing, intenerating,  energizing  force ;  and  in  unnum- 
bered instances  it  has  shown  its  adequacy  to  mould 
the  spirit  in  sanctity,  beauty,  and  power. 

Moreover,   the   Christian   consciousness   not  only 


174  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

betrays,  but  acknowledges  its  source.  While  an  in- 
finitesimal proportion  who  have  at  some  time  seemed 
the  disciples  of  Jesus,  retaining  much  that  they  de- 
rived from  him,  have  disclaimed  him  and  "  walk  no 
more  with  him,"  the  overwhelming  majority  of  those 
who  have  manifested  the  type  of  character  of  which  I 
have  spoken  hesitate  not  to  ascribe  all  that  they  have 
and  are  to  Christ.  They  will  tell  you  :  "  This  virtue 
I  have  cherished,  because  I  see  it  in  my  Master. 
That  sinful  propensity  I  have  subdued,  because  his 
word  and  spirit  rebuke  it.  I  have  been  uplifted  in 
prayer  on  the  wings  of  his  devotion.  I  have  been 
furnished  for  duty  by  the  instructions  that  fell  from 
his  lips.  I  have  been  armed  against  temptation  by 
the  panoply  with  which  he  girded  me.  The  life  which 
I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  by  the  faith  of  the  Son 
of  God,  who  loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for  me." 

I  am  fully  aware  of  the  objection  which  may  be  urged 
against  this  argument,  on  the  ground  of  the  very  im- 
perfect moral  development  to  be  witnessed  in  the  vast 
majority  of  those  who  profess  to  have  learned  of  Jesus 
how  to  live.  The  argument  is  not,  indeed,  so  strong  as 
it  might  be, —  not  so  strong  as  it  will  be  in  the  better 
time  to  come.  Were  Christians  in  general  all  that  they 
profess  to  be  and  ought  to  be,  I  doubt  whether  there 
would  be  need  of  offering  any  other  evidence  for 
Christianity  than  the  lives  of  its  disciples.  But  we 
are  willing,  as  the  case  stands,  to  base  our  argument 
on  the  following  statement.  The  best  men  that  the 
world  has  seen  have  been  Christians,  and  have  pro- 
fessed to  derive  their  virtues  from  Christ.     Among 


CHRISTIANITY  A  SOURCE  OF  STRENGTH.      1 75 

men  of  a  less  excellent  type  of  character,  yet  belong- 
ing, on  the  whole,  to  the  class  of  virtuous  men,  we 
have  reason  to  believe  that  the  greater  part  have  de- 
rived whatever  of  goodness  they  possess  from  Christ ; 
while  we  find  that  immorality  and  vice  are  never  to 
be  traced  to  the  presence,  but  are,  in  unnumbered 
instances,  obviously  due  to  the  absence  or  deficiency 
of  Christian  training  and  influence.  Were  Christ 
and  his  religion  to  be  eliminated  from  among  the  fac- 
tors that  constitute  the  moral  character  of  modern 
Christendom,  all  the  highest  forms  of  excellence  would 
be  eliminated  also  ;  the  next  highest  would  be  nearly 
extinguished,  and  all  lower  grades  sadly  depleted. 
Nor  have  we  within  our  experimental  knowledge  any 
moral  force,  agency,  or  influence,  which  could  begin 
to  do  for  human  character  what  Christ  and  his  relig- 
ion have  done.  As  much  as  this  has  been  proved,  and 
is  at  the  same  time  so  patent  and  manifest  as  hardly  to 
need  proof ;  and  up  to  this  point  Christianity  sustains 
the  test  of  experiment,  by  having  done  what  it  prom- 
ises and  purports  to  do  for  the  formation  of  character. 
Christianity  claims,  in  the  next  place,  to  be  regarded 
as  pre-eminently  a  source  of  strength,  a  motive  power 
for  whatever  man  is  bound  to  do  or  needs  to  have 
done.  There  are,  indeed,  many  Christians  who  are 
not  distinguished  as  workers.  Yet  you  will  find  that 
the  two  characters  coincide  much  more  frequently 
than  they  exist  apart,  and  that  it  is  under  the  un- 
doubted impulse  of  expressly  Christian  motives  that 
the  most  and  best  work  has  been  done  and  is  doing 
throughout  the  civilized  world. 


176  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE, 

The  working  force  of  Jesus  himself  has  been  kept 
too  much  in  the  background,  in  the  glowing  admira- 
tion called  forth  by  the  peculiarly  lovable  traits  of  his 
character.  But  we  have  reason  to  place  as  tran- 
scendent an  estimate  on  his  energy  as  on  his  gentle- 
ness. His  public  ministry  was  but  from  a  year  and  a 
half  to  three  years  in  duration  ;  *  and  in  that  period 
what  a  wide  diversity  and  frequent  change  of  scene, 
—  in  Judaea,  Galilee,  Samaria,  Peraea  !  What  succes- 
sions and  varieties  of  stubborn  soil  to  be  broken  up, 
and  made  penetrable  by  the  seeds  of  evangelic  teach- 
ing !  What  constant  and  urgent  appeals  for  his  ser- 
vices to  the  suffering  and  afflicted !  Some  of  his 
days,  of  which  we  can  trace  the  record,  are  so 
crowded  with  ever-changing  claims  upon  his  energy, 
that  they  might  seem  to  have  required  the  sun  to 
linger  on  his  course  to  make  them  adequate  to  their 
work.  Then  after  those  weary  days  he  seeks  new 
strength  for  the  morrow,  not  in  sleep,  but  more  ef- 
fectively in  prayer  ;  for  as  the  touch  of  his  mother 
earth  renovates  the  vigor  of  the  fabled  demigod,  so 
from  communion  with  his  own  mother-land  flows  fresh 
might  into  the  soul  of  the  heaven-born. 

Closest  among  his  standard-bearers,  St.  Paul  exem- 
plifies the  energizing  efficacy  of  Christianity.  How 
intense  his  activity !  How  broadly  comprehensive 
his  plans  of  labor !  A  pastorate  embracing  all  the 
habitable  regions  of  the  earth  would  now  be  scarcely 
greater,  considering  the  present  facilities  for  locomo- 

*  The  chronological  data  in  the  Gospels  certainly  render  the 
shorter  period  not  improbable.     See  Appendix,  note  L. 


CHRISTIAN  WORKERS.  1*J*J 

tion,  than  was  for  him  the  care  of  all  the  churches  in 
the  diocese  erected  by  his  toil.  No  navigator  could 
tell  more  than  he  of  the  perils  of  the  deep ;  nor  was  it 
without  the  utmost  hardship  and  hazard  that  he  made 
his  way,  often  where  there  was  no  thoroughfare  for 
ordinary  intercourse,  in  the  rugged  interior  of  Asia 
Minor,  or  on  the  inhospitable  coast  of  Macedonia. 
Ubiquitous  in  his  oversight  and  presence,  where  he 
has  once  been,  he  makes  himself  felt  ever  onward  as 
an  efficient  force.  And  it  is  with  his  whole  being 
that  he  labors,  —  with  mind,  and  heart,  and  soul,  —  so 
that  the  imprint  of  his  massive  spirit  and  his  burning 
zeal  has  still  remained  on  the  life  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  is  renewed  with  pristine  vividness  when- 
ever there  is  a  fresh  impulse  toward  spiritual  growth, 
or  an  access  of  earnest  endeavor  in  behalf  of  the  un- 
evangelized.  Moreover,  we  have  from  him  the  clear 
exhibition  of  the  convictions  and  motives  under  which 
he  wrought  his  life-work,  —  a  profound  sense  of  the 
love  and  sacrifice  of  Christ,  of  the  claims  of  his 
brother-men  on  him  for  the  sake  of  the  common 
Father,  and  of  his  own  instrumentality  as  an  agent 
for  the  accomplishment  of  God's  purposes  of  love. 

It  is  in  these  exclusively  Christian  elements  that 
the  great  workers  of  the  last  eighteen  centuries  have 
been  of  one  mind  and  heart.  No  matter  what  their 
sphere  of  labor, —  whether  it  is  Ambrose,  with  his  own 
unaided  prowess  keeping  at  bay  the  forces  of  the 
empire  ;  or  Luther,  with  the  '*'  words  that  shook  the 
world ;"  or  Oberlin,  gathering  in  the  Lord's  lost  sheep 
among  the  mountains  ;  or  Howard,  sounding  the  low- 

8* 


178  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

est  depths  of  misery  in  prisons  and  pest-houses  all 
over  Europe  ;  or  Wesley,  pouring  fresh  life-blood 
from  Calvary  into  the  desiccated  veins  of  ecclesiastical 
formalism  and  indifferentism  ;  or  Judson,  sacrificing 
the  aims  of  a  towering  ambition  for  toil  amidst  a 
thousand  deaths,  with  no  forecast  glimmering  of 
earthly  fame ;  or  Arnold,  inaugurating  a  new  era  for 
liberal  Christian  culture  wherever  his  life-record  shall 
be  read  ;  or  Florence  Nightingale,  restoring  the  order 
of  nobility  founded  when  Jesus  washed  the  feet  of 
his  disciples,  and  carrying  off,  with  her  sisterhood  of 
mercy,  all  the  laurels  of  the  last  great  wars,  —  wher- 
ever we  see  pre-eminent  ability  and  success  in  a  life- 
work  worth  performing,  we  find  but  the  reproduction 
of  the  specifically  Christian  elements  of  St.  Paul's 
energy,  —  a  spirit  profoundly  moved  in  grateful  sym- 
pathy with  a  loving,  suffering  Redeemer,  a  strong 
emotional  recognition  of  human  brotherhood,  and  a 
merging  of  self  in  the  sense  of  a  mission  and  a  charge 
from  God.  The  absence  of  either  of  these  injures 
the  work,  mars  its  staple,  or  scants  its  quantity, 
and  without  the  first  of  the  three  the  others  are  want- 
ing or  deficient ;  for  Christ  by  his  sufferings,  so  far 
as  they  are  laid  hold  on  with  loving  faith,  reconciles 
man  to  man  no  less  than  man  to  God,  while  it  is  only  in 
view  of  his  transcendent  excellence  and  his  paramount 
claims  upon  us  that  our  own  selfhood  is  humbled,  our 
suit  for  wages  cancelled,  and  we  are  endowed  with  the 
true  spirit  of  service.  Accordingly  you  will  find  that, 
when  divorced  from  Christ,  even  philanthropy  grows 
sour  or  bitter,  or  narrow  and  exclusive,  runs  in  veins, 


INFIDELITY  FRUITLESS.  l*jg 

makes  distinctions  of  persons,  or  else  becomes  feeble 
and  inane,  the  heart-work  lapsing  into  mere  handwork 
or  tongue-work. 

We  could  ask  for  no  more  decisive  experimental 
test  of  Christianity  than  this.  We  would  apply  it 
chiefly  to  such  labors  as  inure  to  the  benefit  of 
humanity.  Of  reforms  which  have  marked  stages  of 
actual  and  irreversible  progress  ;  of  institutions  for 
the  promotion  of  human  health,  comfort,  happiness, 
intelligence,  virtue ;  of  propagandisms  that  have  had 
a  single  view  to  the  improvement  of  mankind ;  of  new 
forms  of  charity  such  as  spring  up  with  the  fresh 
needs  of  every  age  ;  of  lives  devoted,  in  the  whole  or 
in  great  part,  to  specific  labors  of  love,  —  how  many 
can  you  find  in  the  world's  history  anterior  to  Chris- 
tianity ?  How  many  can  you  find  since,  or  now,  that 
may  not  be  placed,  without  controversy,  to  the  credit 
of  Christianity ;  that  is,  of  Christians  who  would  dis- 
claim the  praise  for  themselves,  and  demand  it  for  the 
Master  whom  they  serve  and  follow  ? 

I  cannot  see  that  infidelity,  so  far  as  it  has  pre- 
vailed, has  even  profited  by  the  example  of  the  magi- 
cians of  Egypt  in  the  time  of  Moses,  who  endeavored 
to  copy  the  works  which  they  could  not  rival.  It  has 
had  its  fair  opportunity.  When  it  had  free  scope  in 
France,  it  left,  I  think,  no  vestiges  of  philanthropy,  or 
even  of  humanity.  Nor  in  Protestant  countries  are  they 
who  reject  Christianity  distinguishing  themselves  by 
any  services  that  will  have  their  witness  on  earth 
and  their  enduring  record  in  heaven.  You  have  in 
this  city  an  infidel  organization  that  has  its  own  press, 


l8o  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

its  festivals,  its  saints'  days.  There  are  names  which 
its  members  love  to  keep  ever  green,  however  remote 
their  fragrance  may  be  from  the  odor  of  sanctity. 
They  observe  the  birthday  of  Thomas  Paine,  as  you 
do  Christmas.  Are  they  doing  any  great  works  in 
his  name  }  Are  they  beginning  to  show,  or  do  they 
promise  to  show  even  in  the  remote  future  when  they 
shall  have  crushed  out  Christianity,  that  Antichrist 
can  do  more  for  man  than  Christ  has  ever  done  "i 

In  fine,  Christianity  has  so  far  manifested  its 
superiority  in  beneficent  action  to  all  the  other  work- 
ing forces  of  the  world  combined,  that  the  experi- 
mental evidence  for  it  under  this  head  is  oppressive 
and  unmanageable  from  its  multiplicity  and  fulness. 
If  you  were  to  take  away  Christian  work  and  workers 
from  the  world,  and  destroy  the  vestiges  of  what  has 
been  wrought  in  Christ's  name,  I  doubt  whether  those 
who  now  reject  or  despise  the  Gospel  would  think  the 
world  any  longer  worth  living  in. 

Christianity  claims,  also,  to  afford  such  support, 
solace,  and  peace  under  trial  and  grief  as  can  be  de- 
rived from  no  other  religion  or  philosophy.  We  can- 
not, indeed,  ignore  the  fact  that  there  has  been  no 
little  brave  endurance  in  which  Christianity  has  borne 
no  part.  We  cannot  forget  that  Stoicism  professed  to 
account  calamity,  loss,  and  pain  as  not  in  any  sense 
evils,  and  that  among  its  disciples  were  illustriows 
men  whose  lofty  serenity  no  misfortune  could  cloud, 
whose  stern  courage  no  suffering  could  daunt.  I  will 
yield  to  no  one  in  my  admiration  of  the  Stoics.  Were 
I  parted  from  Christ,  I  certainly  should  fall  back  into 


JOY  IN  CHRIST.  l8l 

their  ranks  ;  for  the  man-born  philosophy  of  life  and 
duty  has  not  advanced  a  single  step  since  the  era  sig- 
nalized by  their  most  illustrious  names.  Yet  there 
was  in  their  resignation  something  grim,  fierce, 
defiant.  They  yielded  to  Fate,  not  to  Providence. 
They  had  not  the  alchemy  by  which  to  extract  good 
from  seeming  evil,  which,  therefore,  was  only  endured 
by  them,  not  transfigured  for  and  in  them.  For  them, 
too,  there  was  a  limit  of  endurance,  and  from  evils 
beyond  earthly  remedy  or  hope  their  philosophy 
opened  for  them  a  lawful  escape  through  suicide. 
They  were,  indeed,  calm,  self-possessed,  strong,  but 
not  happy,  under  severe  affliction.  There  is,  there- 
fore, in  the  Christian's  joy  in  tribulation,  in  the  peace 
clear  to  his  consciousness,  yet  passing  all  understand- 
ing, during  seasons  of  straitness,  grief,  and  suffering, 
an  element  peculiarly  his  own.  The  happiest  person 
I  ever  knew  was  a  widow,  who  had  survived  all  of  a 
large  family  of  children  of  beautiful  promise,  had  sunk 
from  an  easy  competence  into  utter  penury,  and  had 
been  through  declining  years  of  growing  infirmity 
sustained  solely  by  the  loving  ministry  of  friends,  not 
one  of  them  of  her  own  kindred.  Her  last  audible 
words  were  of  gratitude  to  God  for  the  thick-sown 
mercies  of  that  widowed,  desolate  life ;  and  our  fun- 
eral service  for  her  was  one  of  thanksgiving  to  God, 
not  that  he  had  taken  her  out  of  a  world  of  trial,  but 
that  in  it  he  had  made  her  so  radiantly  happy.  This 
is  not  a  solitary  case  ;  were  it  so,  it  would  have  no 
place  here.  Every  Christian  minister  has  been  con- 
versant with  like  experiences,  and  we  have  traced 


1 82  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

them  to  their  source.  It  is  through  the  felt  sympathy 
and  fellowship  of  a  suffering  Saviour,  by  entering  into 
the  spirit  of  his  cross,  by  making  his  prayer  of  resig- 
nation their  own,  and  by  taking  into  their  hearts  the 
power  of  his  resurrection,  that  his  disciples  attain  this 
perfect  peace,  this  consummate  gladness  of  soul.  An 
aged  mother  once  met  me  with  a  smile  when  I  went 
to  condole  with  her  on  the  death  of  her  only  son,  and 
her  first  words  were,  "  I  have  been  like  the  women  at 
the  sepulchre,  who  said.  Who  will  roll  the  stone  away 
for  us  ?  but  when  they  came  to  the  spot,  an  angel  had 
removed  it  for  them."  Was  there  not  an  angel,  nay, 
the  Lord  of  angels,  at  her  side,  to  strengthen  her  ? 

Another  contrast  presents  itself  between  Stoicism 
and  Christianity.  Stoicism  was  a  philosophy  in  the 
highest  import  of  the  word,  attainable  only  by  pro- 
longed mental  culture  and  self -discipline  ;  and  it  was 
one  of  its  fundamental  tenets  that  the  virtues  of  ordi- 
nary life  were  only  an  imperfect  semblance  of  virtue. 
On  the  other  hand,  Christianity  proffers  its  support 
where  there  is  no  other  culture  than  its  own  mere 
rudiments,  where  there  is  not  sufficient  grasp  of  mind 
to  take  in  its  more  recondite  dogmas,  to  interpret  its 
more  obscure  texts,  or  to  comprehend  any  thing  what- 
ever "  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified."  We  have 
witnessed,  times  without  number,  the  experiment  in 
the  simplest  form,  —  the  contact  of  the  dying,  risen 
Saviour  with  the  mind  that  had  no  other  resource ; 
and  we  have  seen  that  this  alone  was  sufficient  for 
the  child,  for  the  slave,  for  the  unlettered  and  unprivi- 
leged, for  those  who,  but  for  their  faith  in  Christ, 


THE   CHRISTIAN  VICTORY  OVER  DEATH.      1 83 

would  have  been  among  the  refuse  of  society.  Such 
souls  it  has  transformed  into  kingly  spirits  that  can 
encounter  penury,  bereavement,  suffering,  a  life  with 
no  sunny  side  or  hopeful  aspect,  and  rise  more  than 
conquerors  over  all.  If  there  be  any  other  religion, 
philosophy,  or  culture  that  can  show  such  trophies, 
we  will  then  take  our  stand  with  those  who  term 
Christianity  one  of  the  great  religions,  and  name 
Christ  in  the  same  category  with  the  sages  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  Europe  and  America. 

Finally,  Christianity  claims  as  its  prerogative  the 
victory  over  death.  This,  however,  it  may  seem  to 
share ;  for  there  have  been  many  calm  and  brave 
deaths  on  which  the  light  of  Christian  faith  has  not 
shone.  Yet  here  there  is  not  so  much  a  resemblance 
as  a  contrast.  The  closing  hours  of  Socrates  present, 
perhaps,  the  most  Christianlike  instance  of  a  con- 
scious approach  to  the  margin  of  the  separating 
stream.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  say  a  word  in  deprecia- 
tion of  the  solemn  grandeur  of  those  last  communings 
of  the  venerable  sage  with  the  friends  that  stood  with 
him  on  the  brink  of  eternity.  Rather  let  us  believe 
that  there  were  about  his  soul  foregleamings  of  the 
Light  that  was  coming  into  the  world,  —  yet  but  the 
dim  day-dawn,  not  the  risen  or  rising  sun.  Compare 
his  doubtful  utterances,  as  quoted  in  a  former  Lecture, 
his  express  disclaiming  of  certainty  in  a  matter  neces- 
sarily so  obscure,  with  the  words  of  the  Christian 
apostle,  "  I  am  now  ready  to  be  offered  ;  the  time  of 
my  departure  is  at  hand  ;  .  .  .  there  is  laid  up  for 
me  a  crown  of   righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the 


184  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

righteous  Judge,  shall  give  me;"  "I  know  whom  I 
have  believed,  and  am  persuaded  that  he  is  able  to 
keep  that  which  I  have  committed  unto  him." 

Then,  too,  the  assurance  of  Socrates,  such  as  it 
was,  was  the  result  of  a  life  devoted  to  thought  and 
reasoning,  and  to  daily  offices  of  philosophical  teach- 
ing. The  immeasurably  fuller  and  more  elastic  assur- 
ance of  Paul  has  belonged  to  multitudes,  in  every  age, 
of  the  illiterate,  of  imperfectly  developed  minds,  of 
persons  who,  but  for  their  Christian  faith,  would  have 
been  confessedly  among  the  feeblest  members  of  so- 
ciety. We  all  know  that  in  death  Christ  gives  the 
victory  to  spirits  else  frail  and  timid,  —  that  they  pass 
out  of  the  world  in  the  undoubting  confidence  that 
they  are  going  but  from  room  to  room  in  their 
Father's  house,  —  that  their  only  consciousness  is 
that  of  an  eternal  life  already  begun,  over  which  death 
has  no  power.  In  these  cases  we  have  again  the 
experiment  in  its  simplest  form,  —  Christ  and  the 
soul  of  man,  with  no  other  possible  ground  of  support, 
source  of  strength,  or  object  of  hope, — with  no 
hoarded  resources  of  philosophical  reflection,  with 
no  capacity  of  reasoning  on  immortality,  of  throwing 
out  a  bridge  of  speculation  and  theory  over  the  abyss 
that  yawns  before  them. 

Let  us  now  sum  up  our  argument.  Christianity 
has  nurtured  every  type  of  goodness,  —  the  tender, 
the  heroic,  the  philanthropy  that  has  ministered  to 
all  forms  of  social  wrong  and  evil,  the  compassion  that 
has  relieved  all  descriptions  of  want  and  misery,  the 
intrepid  courage  which  has  counted  life  of  no  worth 


RESULTS  OF  EXPERIMENT.  185 

in  comparison  with  loyalty  to  the  true  and  the  right. 
It  has  given  peace  and  gladness  to  unnumbered  souls 
in  every  form  of  distress,  suffering,  bereavement,  and 
desolation.  It  has  inspired  an  elastic  and  immortal 
hope  in  those  who  have  watched  by  the  death-bed  of 
their  best  beloved.  Its  notes  of  triumph  have  been 
rehearsed  and  echoed  by  believing  souls  over  the 
open  grave.  It  has  filled  the  hearts  of  the  dying  with 
solemn  joy,  and  merged  the  agony  of  dissolution  in 
the  clear  vision  of  an  open  heaven.  These  are  the 
highest,  the  most  benignant  ministries  that  have  ever 
been  or  ever  can  be  rendered  to  humanity.  Christian- 
ity has  rendered  them  and  is  rendering  them  to 
thousands  upon  thousands.  It  stands  alone.  No 
other  (so-called)  religion,  no  other  type  of  belief  or 
unbelief,  can  be  brought  into  momentary  comparison 
with  it.  Those  who  have  made  these  experiments 
testify  with  one  heart  and  voice  to  the  source  of  their 
virtue,  their  peace,  their  joy.  The  greatly  good,  if 
crowned,  will  cast  down  their  crowns  before  Christ, 
saying,  "  Thou  alone  art  worthy."  The  heavily  af- 
flicted have  found  consolation,  because  they  have 
trodden  the  wine-press,  not  alone,  but  leaning  on  the 
sufferer  of  Calvary.  The  dying  have  looked  so  stead- 
fastly with  the  inward  eye  on  the  countenance  of 
their  risen  Lord,  that  the  vision  has  not  infrequently 
seemed  phototyped  on  the  fleshly  orb.  Are  all  these 
successful  experiments  to  pass  for  nothing,  while  the 
commingling  of  an  acid  and  an  alkali  shall  be  vaunted 
as  proclaiming  a  fundamental  law  of  nature.-^  I  be- 
lieve in  the  teaching  of  the  acid  and  the  alkah,  even 


^"^  Of  THE^^ 


1 86  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

though  the  experiment  be  but  once  performed.  Shall 
I,  can  I,  doubt  the  thousand  upon  thousand-fold  experi- 
ment of  the  commingling — with  gracious  and  glorious 
issues,  indicating  eternal  laws  of  the  spiritual  world  — 
of  the  life  and  soul  of  Jesus  Christ  with  the  life  and 
soul  of  his  disciple  ? 


LECTURE    IX. 

CHRISTIANITY   AS   A   RENOVATING  POWER   IN  HUMAN  SOCIETY. 

—  WHAT  IT  PROMISES  TO  ACCOMPLISH.  —  ITS  RAPID  PROG- 
RESS IN  THE  FIRST  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES.  —  INFLUENCES 
OPPOSED  TO  IT.  —  ITS  POWER  OVER  PUBLIC  SENTIMENT. — 
ITS    AGENCY   IN   DOMESTIC   LIFE. — AS   REGARDS   SLAVERY. 

—  IN  THE  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE  OF  GOVERNMENT.  —  IN 
THE  RELIEF  OF  HUMAN  WANT  AND  SUFFERING.  —  NO 
OTHER    RELIGION    TO    BE    COMPARED    WITH    IT. 

TN  my  last  Lecture  I  exhibited  the  results  of  indi- 
-*-  vidual  experiment  or  experience  with  regard  to 
Christianity.  These  might  be  decisive  as  to  the 
pre-eminent  worth  of  the  religion,  even  were  the 
instances  in  which  it  has  done  its  full  work  very 
few.  Indeed,  the  argument  from  experiment  was 
never  felt  with  more  force  than  in  the  apostolic  age, 
when  the  Christian  type  of  character  had  very  few 
specimens,  yet  was  both  attractive  from  its  novelty, 
and  peculiarly  Christlike  from  the  personal  intimacy 
of  those  who  bore  it  with  Jesus.  But  the  efficacy 
of  Christianity  can  be  thoroughly  tested  only  by 
ascertaining  what  it  has  done  for  society,  communi- 
ties, nations,  the  human  race.  It  is  not,  however, 
incumbent  upon  us  to  show  that  it  has  effected  all 
that  we  might  antecedently  have  expected  from  a 
divinely  promulgated  religion.     This  is  a  matter  in 


1 88  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

which  we  have  no  data  or  precedents  by  which  to 
graduate  our  expectations.  Our  short  Uves  may  make 
the  cycles  of  the  Divine  Providence  seem  slow  and 
long.  The  two  questions  which  we  need  to  answer 
with  regard  to  Christianity  are  :  i.  Has  it  done  for 
man  all  that  its  Founder  promised }  and  2.  Has  any 
other  religion  done  as  much  for  man,  or  even  placed 
itself  in  this  respect  in  favorable  comparison  with 
Christianity  } 

We  will  first  inquire,  Has  Christianity  done  for 
man  all  that  its  Founder  promised  }  He  predicted 
that  it  would  be  early  preached  throughout  the  then 
known  world  ;  that  its  growth  at  the  outset  would  be 
rapid  ;  that  it  would  encounter  the  severest  persecu- 
tion and  the  most  strenuous  antagonism  ;  that  its 
immediate  effect  would  be  to  send  not  peace,  but  a 
sword  upon  the  earth  ;  that  it  would  not  lead  to  the 
establishment  of  a  theocracy,  or  to  the  separation  of 
his  disciples  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  but  that  Chris- 
tians and  non-Christians  would  remain  side  by  side, 
as  wheat  and  tares  in  a  field  ;  that,  however^  his 
religion  would  gradually  modify  existing  institutions 
and  habits,  without  external  show,  by  a  quiet  interior 
working,  like  that  of  the  leaven  in  the  mass  of  mois- 
tened meal,  thus  making  all  things  new,  not  by  sudden 
revolution,  but  by  slow  and  often  insensible  stages  of 
progress.  Let  us  see  how  far  these  predictions  have 
been  fulfilled. 

The  early  growth  of  Christianity  is  without  prec- 
edent or  parallel  in  human  history.  Within  a 
century    after    its    Founder's    death    it    had    been 


CHRISTIANITY  AND    THE   OLDER  RELIGIONS.  1 89 

received  by  multitudes  in  every  region  of  the  then 
civilized  world,  and  had  made  numerous  disciples  in 
those  great  eastern  empires  that  lay  wholly  beyond 
the  reach  of  Grecian  and  Roman  culture.  Within  two 
centuries  there  was  more  of  learning  and  philosophy 
in  the  Church  than  outside  of  it ;  in  Alexandria, 
which  had  supplanted  Athens  as  the  world's  centre 
of  erudition,  almost  all  the  distinguished  scholars  were 
Christians  ;  and  the  Platonic  philosophy,  especially, 
had  scarcely  any  but  Christians  among  its  eminent 
disciples,  while  it  had  furnished  not  a  few  of  the 
Christian  martyrs.  Within  three  centuries,  Christi- 
anity had  mounted  the  throne  of  the  Cassars  ;  the 
cross  had  become  the  proudest  ensign  of  power  and 
state ;  and  the  idolatry  whose  shattered  temples  and 
statues  in  Athens  and  Rome  modern  art  may  copy, 
but  can  never  equal,  had  become  literally  Paganism, 
and  —  though  at  uncertain  intervals  stimulated  into  a 
brief  revival  in  the  Italian  cities  —  had  for  the  most 
part  only  obscure  pagans  or  villagers  for  its  votaries. 
Of  the  ten  successive  persecutions  enumerated  by 
ecclesiastical  historians  of  the  old  school,  the  greater 
part  were  wars  of  extermination,  waged  with  the 
whole  force  of  the  empire  against  the  new  faith  ; 
yet  the  agents  of  the  imperial  power  had  such  success 
in  extinguishing  Christianity  as  a  little  group  of  emi- 
grants might  hope  to  have  in  trampling  out  the  fire  in 
a  burning  prairie. 

Christianity  in  its  progress  had  to  contend  with 
religions  which  had  their  roots  in  immemorial  antiquity, 
were   intertwined  with  the  whole  fabric  of  society, 


ipO  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE, 

were  intimately  associated  with  domestic  and  civic 
life,  and  were  made  beautiful  and  glorious  by  the 
highest  art  and  the  most  finished  literature  to  which 
human  genius  has  given  birth. 

Still  more  hopeless  seemed  the  conflict  of  Christi- 
anity with  the  grossest  moral  corruption.  Art  and 
poetry,  music  and  song,  had  become  the  satellites  of 
vice.  Philosophy —:  with  exceptions,  illustrious,  in- 
deed, but  few  —  had  relaxed  her  stern  features,  and 
under  the  broad  charter  of  Epicureanism  smiled  on 
excess  and  licentiousness,  and  employed  all  her 
acumen  in  seeking  paths  to  happiness  that  might 
not  trespass  on  the  confines  of  virtue.  Gross  sensu- 
ality was  less  the  recreation  than  the  business,  aim, 
and  end,  of  large  numbers  who  occupied  the  highest 
places  in  station,  wealth,  and  culture.  The  only 
public  amusements  were  such  as  ministered  to  the 
coarsest  and  vilest  passions,  —  the  contests  of  wild 
beasts,  the  deadly  combats  of  gladiators,  the  tearing 
of  criminals  limb  from  limb  in  the  amphitheatre,  the 
representation  of  all  that  was  most  foul  and  obscene 
in  comedy.  Vices  that  have  no  longer  a  name  among 
men  were  glorified  in  ode  and  epigram,  and  sanctioned 
b}^  the  example  of  the  so-called  guardians  of  the  public 
virtue. 

Under  all  these  unpropitious  influences,  Christi- 
anity seemed  placed  at  the  greater  disadvantage  by 
the  obscurity  of  its  Founder  and  his  associates.  He, 
born  in  a  manger,  reared  in  a  despised  village,  bearing 
the  reproachful  name  of  a  Galilean,  often  houseless 
and  destitute,  the  companion  of  humble  fishermen ; 


PROGRESS  OF  CHRISTIANITY.  I9I 

the  eleven  who  took  up  the  standard  of  the  infant 
faith  when  it  dropped  from  his  hands,  ilHterate,  in- 
experienced, unhonored  men,  re-enforced  in  the  early- 
stages  of  their  work  by  but  one  associate  of  large 
attainments  and  masterly  ability,  and  that  one  bearing 
the  stigma  —  degrading  everywhere  out  of  Palestine 
—  of  Jewish  parentage, —  these  are  the  destined  crea- 
tors of  a  new  era,  and  founders  of  a  spiritual  sover- 
eignty to  which  supreme  earthly  power  shall  own 
allegiance.  These  disciples,  ignorant  of  every  lan- 
guage but  their  own  native  patois  of  Hebrew  alloyed 
with  Chaldee,and  a  rude  Greek  bristling  with  strange 
Hebrew  idioms,  are  to  proclaim  the  Gospel  through- 
out and  beyond  the  Roman  empire.  Unskilled  in 
rhetorical  arts,  they  are  to  persuade  those  familiar 
with  the  traditions  and  successors  of  Cicero  and 
Hortensius.  Unpractised  in  logic,  they  are  to  dis- 
pute in  the  schools  of  philosophers.  They  are  to  go, 
not  to  corners  and  by-places,  but  to  the  radiating 
centres  of  civilization  and  culture,  interpreting  the 
Unknown  God  among  the  monuments  of  Athenian 
genius,  preaching  the  self-denying  and  hardy  virtues 
in  luxurious  and  effeminate  Corinth,  teaching  the 
empress  city  of  the  world  to  bow  to  the  sceptre  of 
the  King  of  kings. 

With  all  these  opposing  influences  and  unfavor- 
able circumstances,  the  progress,  nay,  the  continued 
existence  of  Christianity  is  the  miracle  of  the  ages. 
If  the  religion  was  man-devised  and  earth-born,  its 
surviving  the  crucifixion  of  its  Founder  was  intrinsi- 
cally less  probable  and  credible  than  the  rising  of 


-iigfZ  CBRJSTIAmTY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Ijxzasm  ham  Ins  ioor  day*  deatli  slumber.  The 
carlf  Instorf  of  Cknstkaatf^  however,  accords  in 
tins  reelect  widi  die  predicdoos  of  Christ ;  and  — 
wiat  is  iBore  to  oar  presei^  parposc  —  it  ionusiies 
aa  cxpethmeatsd  erideace  of  its  ca^Micity  for  extraded 
|wo|Mgjf inn,  tibat  is,  of  its  itness  to  meet  thcrsajiag 
licMumlt,  cottditioBS»  and  needs  of  anivcfsal  hamaaaty, 
— a  fitness  of  wkick  it  is  now  giving  proof,  as  in  primi- 
tire  times,  by  ihc  revinl  in  oor  own  century  of  the 
missioiiarf  ^rit,  and  by  the  eaaaeat  soccer  of 
Chnstian  propagmdism  among  faces  ddnsed  by 
of  baibarans  or -savage  life,  and  in  their 
stnpidity  presenting  a  far  less  imriting  soil 
ior  tph^Mtal  tikk  tlun  the  Md3  so  promptly  made 
wbite  for  the  harvest  in  the  time  of  the  aposdes. 

Bat  what  has  Cluistianjty  done  lor  the  world  ? 
Wherein  is  modem  Christian  civilization  in  advance 
of  the  old  Gtedc  and  Roman  civilization  which  it 
sttperscdcd  ?  It  nnist  be  admitted  that  the  outward 
tnmsformation  of  sode^  has  been  far  less  radical  and 
thmom^thsm  a  Chrisdan  optimist  of  the  first  century 
woidd  have  anticipated  The  vision  of  the  seer  of 
die  Apocalypse,  to  whose  prophetic  eye  the  ages  seem 
to  have  b^sn  fofeshortened,  and  the  far-off  future  to 
have  locked  very  near,  is  immeasuraMy  more  remote 
now  than  it  was  in  his  view.  Yet  there  are  many 
aspects  in  which  M  thmg;^  hare  pst§aed  away,  and  ^ 
things  have  become  new. 

In  the  fost  frface,  the  greatest  of  all  transformations 
may  be  marted  in  the  relation  borne  by  vice  and  sin 
to  public  opinion.    There  are  many  respects  in  whidi 


CmtiSTFAXITr  AJTD  FCBUC  O^iyTCM'        XCQ 

pOTtioQS  of  Christendom  are  banT     '     - 
mas  the  Gentile  world  i-   :he  r- 
■oial  evfl  is  aov  aof^ 
mad  mppmnk    Uadoc 
ncwr  as  Tile  Etciatmc  :i 
ace.  Orid,  CatidBS^  or 
IcNBid  oaif  m  die  slmr  - 
tkeir  poems  mere  de^^' 
were  in  the  liands 
persons^  and  v 
of  their  timesw     I^^l^.^^^  i^- 
sant  with  its  lowest  dqidis 
than  when  it  was  the  sec 
hat  not  less  ^ssolnle  th 
esca.Tations  in  Foapei  sh 

and  under  die  han  of  the  .^  hiw,  was 

then  paraded  cieijfnhcie  ^  .ces  cl 

piibfic  conoomsev  un  ever  ;  L^een 

nurseries  of  the  vilest  hce  in 

hardly  have  incited  her  doi^  jt- 

tion  of  the  semhlance  of  vi  — 

suburbs  and  imitators  of  Naq)les — that  were 
under  the  ashes  of  Vcsnvin&    In  o«r  own  cv 
Tenality,  bribefj,  pecubtion»  dcfiiAcatiQnw  uid  c 
tioa.  on  the  part  of  men  in  office  trusts  powv 
high  position*  could  hardtf  ^nd  more  don  the 
aDel  in  the  wwst  dajs  of  Rome ;  Verves  m^: 
to  have  be^i  the  patron  saint  of  lurgie  numb 
our  Gommtssaries^  Indian  ngents^  and  revenue 
tives ;  and  no  pro-consul  can  have  been  mort^ 
cious  dian  some  of  our  puhlk  men  who  ex^\ 

9 


194  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

proconsular  jurisdiction  in  our  southern  cities  during 
the  late  rebellion.  But  before  Christ  there  was  no 
sensitiveness  of  the  public  conscience  on  these  mat- 
ters. Thus  it  was  long  the  recognized  usage  in  Rome 
for  an  edile  to  incur  enormous  debts  in  furnishing 
public  shows  and  entertainments,  with  the  under- 
standing that  he  was  to  reimburse  himself  by  the 
spoils  of  the  province  which  in  due  course  of  time 
would  fall  to  his  administration  ;  and  it  is  reckoned  as 
among  Cicero's  special  titles  to  honor  and  admiration 
—  a  solitary  distinction  —  that,  when  he  had  the  gov- 
ernment of  a  province,  he  committed  neither  theft  nor 
robbery.  Cicero,  who,  so  far  as  I  can  remember,  does 
not  in  his  ethical  treatises  pass  in  a  single  instance  a 
favorable  judgment  on  an  immoral  act,  tells  the  story 
of  the  two  foremost  citizens  of  Rome,  men  of  high 
reputation,  openly  receiving  legacies  by  a  will  which 
every  one  knew  to  be  forged,  as  retain ing-fees  for 
their  declining  to  advocate  the  cause  of  the  rightful 
heir.  He  cites,  as  a  case  in  which  even  Stoic  moral- 
ists were  divided  in  opinion,  the  question,  whether  if 
a  wise  man  —  that  is,  a  truly  virtuous  man  —  hadigno- 
rantly  received  counterfeit  money,  he  may  knowingly 
use  it  in  the  payment  of  his  debts.  You  cannot  now 
find  the  man  who  approves  theft  or  fraud  of  any  kind,  or 
will  dare  to  defend  or  excuse  it.  The  men  who  are 
false  to  their  trusts  may  cover  up  or  deny  their  of- 
fences, and  may,  by  corrupt  means,  retain  and  extend 
the  power  they  abuse ;  but  they  could  not  stand  a 
single  day  in  face  of  the  clear  proof  of  their  guilt.  The 
Credit  Mobilier  would  not  have  been  out  of  keeping 


CHRISTIANITY  IN  DOMESTIC  LIFE.  I95 

with  the  best  usage  in  Rome.  Here  it  has  driven  its 
detected  accomplices,  in  spite  of  undoubted  public  ser- 
vices and  high  religious  pretensions,  into  the  grave,  or 
a  living  death  of  enduring  ignominy.  The  case  is  the 
same  throughout  Christendom  with  every  form  of  vice 
or  crime.  No  one  ventures  to  approve  it.  No  one  is 
bold  enough  to  apologize  for  it.  However  it  may 
abound  and  run  riot,  its  actors  and  abettors  are 
ashamed  of  it.  Were  they,  in  conclave,  to  construct  a 
code  of  morals  from  their  own  sincere  conviction  and 
belief,  it  would  be  a  Christian  code.  We  have  here, 
assuredly,  an  immense  gain,  in  the  conversion  of  the 
public  conscience,  in  the  establishing  of  a  Nemesis  in 
the  individual  consciences  of  evil-doers.  Jesus  has,  at 
least,  produced  a  conviction  of  sin,  a  pervading  sense 
of  right,  and  a  rectitude  of  moral  judgment,  of  which, 
before  his  time,  we  have  but  few  traces. 

We  will  next  consider  the  agency  of  Christianity  in 
domestic  life.  At  the  Christian  era,  the  conjugal 
relation,  whose  stability  is  the  sole  safeguard  for  the 
peace  and  well-being  of  the  family,  was  held  in  rever- 
ence nowhere  in  the  civilized  world.  Divorce,  in 
theory  justifiable  on  the  slightest  grounds,  was  facili- 
tated by  law,  sanctioned  by  custom,  and  held  blame- 
less in  the  best  public  opinion.  In  Judaea,  the  Mosaic 
law,  which,  in  the  ages  when  writing  was  a  rare 
accomplishment,  interposed  serious  difficulties  by 
requiring  the  malecontent  husband  to  furnish  the  wife 
with  a  legal  document,  had  ceased  to  operate  as  a 
check.  In  Athens,  there  was  not  only  liberty  of  di- 
vorce without  cause,  but  the  husband  had  a  legal  right 


196  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

to  sell  his  wife  into  second  nuptials  to  which  she  was 
not  a  consenting  party  ;  and,  in  case  a  father  died, 
leaving  no  children  except  a  married  daughter,  the 
nearest  kinsman  of  his  name  could  legally  dissolve 
her  marriage  and  make  her  his  own  wife.  In  Rome, 
men  and  women  alike  exercised  the  legal  right  of 
divorce,  with  a  sole  view  to  new  marriages  ;  and  there 
were  women  of  illustrious  rank  who,  as  Seneca  says, 
reckoned  the  years  not  by  consuls,  but  by  husbands, 
divorced  to  marry,  married  to  divorce.  The  mahgn 
associations  connected  with  the  term  noverca  (step- 
mother) of  which  the  literature  of  the  Augustan  age 
furnishes  numerous  instances,  grew  not  from  that 
office  legitimately  assumed,  but  from  the  frequency 
with  which  an  artful  and  intriguing  woman  contrived 
to  supplant  the  mother  of  the  family,  and  of  course 
could  hardly  have  any  other  relations  with  that 
mother's  children  than  those  of  mutual  distrust,  sus- 
picion, and  hatred.*  Under  such  a  domestic  regime, 
there  was,  of  necessity,  no  home-culture  for  the  chil- 
dren ;  nor  was  even  home-love  able  to  survive  the 
wrenches  and  outrages  to  which  it  was  perpetually 
doomed.  The  mother  was  liable  to  be  separated  for 
ever  from  her  children  before  they  could  know  the 
preciousness  of  her  love,  and  it  was  the  prime  en- 
deavor of  her  rival  and  successor  to  supersede  them 
in  their  father's  affection  for  the  benefit  of  her  own 
children.  We  have  abundant  evidence  that  in  the 
richer  families    children    were    left   till   adult  years 

*  See  Appendix,  note  M. 


HOME  CREATED  BY  CHRISTIANITY.  197 

almost  entirely  to  the  care  and  training  of  slaves, 
without  even  the  pretence  of  parental  supervision. 

The  primitive  power  of  life  and  death  over  the 
child,  though  not  legally  repealed,  had  fallen  into  dis- 
use, in  consequence,  less  of  growing  refinement,  than 
of  the  massing  of  powers  that  had  been  distributed 
into  the  more  and  more  autocratic  sway  of  the  em- 
peror :  yet  still  there  seems  to  have  been  not  a  little  of 
tolerated,  nay,  legalized  infanticide  in  the  case  of  feeble 
or  sickly  children,  and  of  those  whom  it  was  incon- 
venient to  bring  up  ;  a  license  claimed  by  Plato,  sanc- 
tioned by  Aristotle,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  accepted 
without  contradiction  in  all  classic  antiquity.  St. 
Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  speaks  of  the 
Gentile  world  in  general  as  "without  natural  affec- 
tion." How  far  this  applied  to  the  Roman  people  of 
his  time  we  may  learn  from  the  frequency  with  which 
the  property  of  fathers  was  wholly  diverted  from. their 
children,  through  the  devices  of  stepmothers,  the 
intrigues  of  legacy-hunters,  and  the  adoption  of  chil- 
dren from  motives  of  interest  or  ambition  that  have 
no  parallel  in  modern  society.  Nor  yet  could  the  son 
acquire  any  thing  of  his  own,  or  dispose  of  the  earnings 
of  his  own  industry,  with  the  single  exception  that 
under  Augustus  the  wages  of  sons  that  served  in  the 
army  were  decreed  to  be  their  own  property ;  this, 
however,  not  on  the  score  of  right  and  justice,  but  to 
facilitate  the  recruiting  of  the  military  service  with 
native  citizens.* 

This  cursory  sketch  of  the  condition  of  home-life  under 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  N. 


198  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

the  ancient  civilization  may  account  for  the  absence  of 
any  word  corresponding  to  Jiome  in  the  classic  lan- 
guages, and  for  the  plural  form,  cedes,  in  which  a  house 
is  commonly  designated  in  the  Latin  ;  for  the  house 
consisted  of  a  quadrangle  of  apartments,  with  separate 
entrances  from  the  central  court  common  to  all,  and 
there  was  no  sentiment  of  family  union  to  unify  in 
thought  and  speech  the  several  portions  of  the  domi- 
cile. 

We  have  seen  what  the  family  was  when  Christ 
came  into  the  world.  He  re-established  the  family 
by  pronouncing  the  marriage  covenant  sacred  and 
inviolable.  Under  his  auspices  it  at  once  became  a 
religious  bond,  sanctioned  by  prayer  and  by  the  em- 
blems of  the  redemption-sacrifice.  TertuUian,  the 
earliest  of  the  Latin  fathers,  writes  :  "  The  Church 
prescribes  the  contract ;  holy  rites  confirm  it  ;  the 
benediction  seals  it  ;  God  ratifies  it.  The  believing 
husband  and  wife  bear  the  same  yoke :  they  are  of  one 
mind  ;  they  pray  together ;  they  fast  together ;  they 
are  together  in  worship,  at  the  Lord's  table,  in  adver- 
sity and  in  prosperity.  Divorce  is  now  prohibited  ; 
for  what  God  has  joined  man  shall  not  separate,  lest 
he  sin  against  God.  He  who  has  joined  alone  shall 
separate."  Thus,  so  fast  as  Christianity  was  diffused, 
chaste  and  permanent  homes,  with  their  shelter,  nur- 
ture, and  love,  everywhere  grew  into  being.  Con- 
stantine,  though  himself  probably  not  very  profoundly 
penetrated  with  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  was,  never- 
theless, greatly  under  the  influence  of  the  clergy ; 
and,  in  every  feature  of  his  reformatory  legislation,  we 


CHRISTIAN  LEGISLATION  FOR   CHILDREN.     199 

trace  their  hand  and  the  hand  of  the  Master  whom 
they  served.  He,  by  his  imperial  edict,  brought  the 
hberty  of  divorce  within  restrictions  almost  as  narrow 
as  those  of  the  Gospel  rule,  extending  the  license  be- 
yond that  limit  only  to  cases  in  which  the  accused 
party  had  been  guilty  of  homicide,  sorcery,  or  the  vio- 
lation of  sepulchres.  In  this  direction  legislation 
rapidly  grew  more  and  more  rigid,  until  the  one  crime 
which  is  in  itself  divorce  became  the  only  recognized 
ground  for  it.* 

In  behalf  of  children  legislation  equally  followed 
the  leading  of  Christian  sentiment,  and  gave  form  and 
body  to  its  spirit.  Constantine,  in  one  of  his  earliest 
edicts  after  his  so-called  conversion,  for  the  purpose, 
as  he  said,  of  preventing  infanticide,  provided  for  the 
feeding  and  clothing  of  the  children  of  destitute 
parents  from  the  public  treasury.  At  nearly  the 
same  time,  he  secured  for  the  benefit  of  adult  children 
the  income  of  various  offices  and  professions  in  both 
Church  and  State,  equally  with  the  wages  of  military 
service.  The  succeeding  Christian  emperors  vindi- 
cated still  farther  the  rights  of  children,  though  the 
very  religion  which  inspired  their  edicts  made  them 
no  longer  necessary;!  for  the  hearts  of  the  fathers 
were  now  turned  to  the  children,  and  of  the  children 
to  the  fathers,  so  that  from  that  age  onward  the  cases 
of  parental  oppression  and  injustice,  whether  in  life 
or  by  will,  before  normal,  have  been  so  rare  and  ex- 
ceptional as  to  arrest  general  attention  and  to  call 
forth  emphatic  condemnation. 

*  See  Appendix,  note  O.  t  See  Appendix,  note  P. 


200  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

From  these  beginnings  sprang  the  domestic  life  of 
modern  Christendom,  —  indissoluble  marriage  the 
corner-stone  of  the  edifice,  the  basis  of  all  the  institu- 
tions and  customs,  amenities  and  endearments,  that 
make  ordinary  homes  peaceful  and  loving,  truly 
Christian  homes  types  of  the  family  unions  in  heaven. 
It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  marriage  institution 
has  been  assailed  in  our  own  time  by  the  very  men, 
women,  and  classes  of  people  who  profess  to  have 
outgrown  Christianity ;  that  among  these  the  more 
advanced,  as  they  term  themselves,  would  retrograde 
to  the  condition  of  things  in  the  most  licentious  days 
of  Athens  and  of  Rome ;  and  that  such  modifications 
of  the  gospel  law  of  divorce  —  till  of  late  universal  in 
Christendom  —  as  have  been  made  in  this  country  and 
in  Europe  have  been  resolutely  opposed  at  every  stage 
by  the  Church,  and  carried  through  under  the  disap- 
proval and  protest  of  its  loyal  ministers  and  members. 

I  am  aware  that  it  is  sometimes  said  that  civilized 
Europe  owes  the  purity  and  sacredness  of  home  rela- 
tions to  the  irruption  of  the  Northern  tribes  into  Gaul 
and  Italy,  and  that  the  rudiments  of  the  Christian  home 
are  to  be  found  in  the  Gcrmania  of  Tacitus.  I  would 
reply,  first,  that  the  Roman  home-life  in  the  best  days 
of  the  republic  was  equally  pure  with  that  of  the  Ger- 
mans at  the  Christian  era,  and  this,  because,  in  either 
case,  idleness  and  luxury  had  not  engendered  vice  ; 
secondly,  that  the  domestic  revolution  had  become 
co-extensive  with  Christianity  before  the  German 
element  had  modified  the  institutions  of  southern 
Europe ;  thirdly,  that  the  description  of  Tacitus  was 


SLAVERY  BEFORE   CHRIST.  20I 

very  far  from  being  applicable  to  the  Goths,  Huns, 
and  Vandals,  who  were  among  the  chief  agents  in  the 
destruction  of  the  Western  Empire  ;  and,  fourthly, 
that  the  influence  of  Christianity  on  men's  home  rela- 
tions may  be  traced  as  clearly  in  those  of  the  southern 
nations  that  never  had  any  considerable  northern  ad- 
mixture, as  in  those  stocks  which  became  transformed 
by  northern  grafts. 

Homes  worthy  of  the  name  are,  then,  among  the 
gifts  of  Christianity,  and  the  contrast  of  modern  with 
ancient  civilization  in  this  regard  is  of  itself  suffi- 
cient to  place  Christianity  foremost  among  the  benefi- 
cent forces  that  have  acted  on  human  society. 

The  work  which  Christianity  has  done  in  the 
amelioration  and  abolition  of  slavery  constitutes  an- 
other of  the  experimental  proofs  of  its  efficacy.  In 
all  antiquity,  so  far  as  we  know,  domestic  slavery 
existed  as  if  by  a  necessity  or  law  of  human  nature, 
without  rebuke  or  question  even  from  the  severest 
moralists.  The  lapse  of  a  free  man  into  slavery,  in 
consequence  of  debt,  captivity,  or  conquest,  was  very 
easy  ;  and  as  the  slave  was  often  of  the  same  or  an 
equal  race  with  his  master,  or  even  his  superior,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  numerous  Greek  slaves  in  Rome,  the  social 
wrong,  though  not  one  whit  more  utterly  unjustifiable, 
must  have  been  more  galling  and  depressing  than 
when  the  enslaved  are  of  an  inferior  race.  In  Rome, 
by  a  law  of  the  Twelve  Tables,  a  debtor  who  remained 
insolvent  after  an  imprisonment  of  sixty  days,  might 
either  be  sold  into  slavery,  or  killed  and  his  body 
divided  among  his  creditors.     In  many  communities 

9*. 


202  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

the  slaves  largely  outnumbered  the  free  population. 
In  Athens  there  were  at  one  time  twenty-one  thou- 
sand citizens  and  four  hundred  thousand  slaves.  In 
the  little  island  of  ^gina  there  were  four  hundred 
and  seventy  thousand  slaves.  Single  citizens  of  Rome 
sometimes  owned  from  ten  to  twenty  thousand. 

Slaves  in  the  Roman  Empire  had  no  legal  rights, 
not  even  the  right  to  life,  and  no  mode  of  redress  for 
injury.  Their  evidence  was  never  taken  except  by 
torture.  If  a  master  was  murdered  by  an  unknown 
person,  it  was  not  unusual  to  put  to  death  all  his 
slaves,  even  to  the  number  of  several  thousands  ;  and 
slaves  were  not  infrequently  set  up  as  targets  for  the 
fatal  archery  of  the  master  and  his  guests,  or  thrown 
into  the  fish-pond  to  improve  the  flavor  of  the  lam- 
preys, or  put  to  death  to  test  some  novel  weapon 
or  mode  of  slaying,  or  killed  in  the  wantonness  of 
drunken  sport,  or  crucified  for  breaking  a  vase,  or 
dropping  a  turbot  on  its  way  to  the  table,  or  mistaking 
an  order  of  the  most  trivial  import. 

Christ  and  his  apostles  made  no  violent  onslaught 
on  slavery  :  if  they  had,  it  would  have  been  of  no 
avail.  But  they  recognized  the  slave's  equal  humanity 
with  his  master,  his  equal  position  before  God,  his 
equal  privileges  under  the  Gospel.  Paul  sends  the 
fugitive  Onesimus  home  to  Philemon,  no  longer  as  a 
slave,  but  as  a  brother  beloved,  and  enjoins  it  upon 
Philemon  in  the  name  of  all  that  is  sacred  thus  to 
receive  him.  Masters  are  reminded  that  with  their 
Master  in  heaven  there  is  no  respect  of  persons,  and, 
as  in  his  sight,  are  bidden  to  render  justice  and  equity 
to  their  slaves. 


CHRISTIAN  LEGISIA  TION  FOR  SLA  VES.        203 

Accordingly,  from  the  Epistle  to  Philemon  all 
through  the  early  Christian  centuries,  among  the 
many  historical  references  —  direct  and  incidental  — 
to  slavery,  there  is  not  one  in  which  the  Church  does 
not  show  herself  the  friend  of  the  slave.  The  Church 
never  admitted  the  distinction  between  bond  and  free 
as  creating  any  difference  under  her  jurisdiction. 
Quite  a  considerable  number  of  the  martyrs,  held  from 
the  first  in  the  highest  reverence,  and  among  the  ear- 
liest canonized,  were  slaves.  Slaves  and  their  chil- 
dren were  trained  and  ordained  for  offices  in  the 
Church,  and  not  a  few  of  the  bishops  came  from  the 
servile  rank.  The  emancipation  of  slaves  was  repre- 
sented as  among  the  most  Christian  works  that  could 
be  performed  ;  the  business  was  conducted  and  regis- 
tered in  the  church  or  through  its  officials ;  and,  after 
Sunday  began  to  be  observed  by  the  suspension  of 
secular  labor,  this  alone,  of  all  kinds  of  business,  was 
deemed  fit  to  be  done  on  Sunday.  Slaves  that  any- 
how became  the  property  of  particular  churches  were 
almost  invariably  set  free,  and  it  was  early  regarded 
as  damaging  to  the  character  of  an  ecclesiastic  that 
he  should  remain  a  slaveholder. 

With  and  after  Constantine,  the  law  kept  even  pace 
with  this  growth  of  Christian  opinion  and  feeling.  An 
edict  of  Constantine  first  made  the  killing  of  a  slave 
criminal  homicide  ;  and  this  edict  has  a  painful  histori- 
cal value  in  enumerating,  as  punishable,  various  most 
horrible  ways  of  putting  slaves  to  death  ;  which,  of 
course,  would  not  have  been  named  had  they  not 
been   practised.     Thenceonward   there   was   an   un- 


204  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

broken  series  of  enactments,  relieving  slaves  from 
disabilities,  augmenting  their  rights,  and  encouraging 
their  emancipation  ;  till  at  length,  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, at  the  very  climax  of  the  power  of  the  Church, 
there  remained  not  a  vestige  of  domestic  slavery  in 
Christendom.* 

To  the  shame  of  modern  Christianity,  slavery  re- 
appeared in  our  western  world  ;  but  it  would  never 
have  survived  the  initial  enterprise,  had  the  arm  of 
the  Church  been  long  enough  to  reach  it  across 
the  intervening  ocean.  It  had  grown  with  amazing 
rapidity  into  a  giant  wrong  and  sin  before  Christian 
sentiment  could  be  organized  and  combined  in  oppo- 
sition to  it.  On  its  own  soil  it  contrived  to  bribe  or 
awe  into  silence  the  feebler  and  less  loyal  officials  of 
the  Church,  and  to  drive  away  or  keep  away  those 
who  would  have  declared  their  Lord's  whole  counsel. 
Yet  there  never  was  a  time  when  large  numbers  and 
large  bodies  of  Christians  did  not  in  the  name  of 
Christ  denounce  slavery  and  disclaim  all  fellowship 
with  its  abettors  ;  and,  from  all  Christian  organiza- 
tions that  remained  quiescent,  there  were  numerous 
secessions  of  earnest  and  devout  men  and  women, 
who  raised  a  revolt  against  the  Church  in  the  name 
of  its  Lord  and  Master.  At  length  the  burden  of 
guilt  which  Christian  Europe  had  thrown  off  long 
before  she  knew  America  has  been  lifted  from  this 
western  world  by  the  overmastering  might  of  Chris- 
tian sentiment,  with  the  entire  force  of  interest, 
policy,  inveterate  prejudice,  and  political  time-serving 

*  See  Appendix,  note  Q. 


CHRISTIANITY  AND   GOVERNMENT.  205 

arrayed  against  it.  We  cannot  believe  that  the  work 
will  ever  need  to  be  done  again  ;  and,  in  this  final  abo- 
lition of  slavery,  Christianity  has  been  nothing  less 
than  revolutionary,  annulling  a  class  distinction  be- 
tween human  owners  and  human  chattels  which  had 
existed  from  the  very  earliest  stages  of  society  that 
have  left  any  vestiges  of  their  history. 

An  equally  entire  revolution  has  taken  place  in  the 
theory,  and  to  a  large  degree  in  the  practice,  of  gov- 
ernment. Said  Jesus,  "  Among  the  nations  the  princes 
exercise  dominion  over  them,  and  they  that  are  great 
exercise  authority  upon  them.  But  among  you,  who- 
soever will  be  great,  let  him  be  your  minister ;  and 
whosoever  will  be  chief  among  you,  let  him  be  your 
servant  ;  even  as  the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be 
ministered  unto,  but  to  minister."  The  idea  of  gov- 
ernment implied  in  these  words  does  not  seem  to 
have  entered  into  the  thought  of  the  ancient  world. 
There  were,  indeed,  humane  and  beneficent  rulers  ; 
but  they  were  not  so  ex  officio,  if  I  may  use  the 
phrase,  —  by  virtue  of  their  position,  and  as  fulfilling 
the  only  condition  on  which  they  could  rightfully  hold 
their  places.  Power,  in  the  single  or  multiform  head 
of  a  nation,  had  its  rights,  but  not  its  commensurate 
obligations.  There  was,  indeed,  an  excess  of  tyranny 
which  a  people  of  spirit  would  not  endure  ;  but  that 
within  certain  limits  the  ruler  should  accumulate 
treasures  for  his  own  sole  benefit,  wage  war  for  his 
own  sole  glory,  and  conduct  his  administration  for 
ends  in  the  main  self-centred,  was  precisely  what  was 
expected,  and  deemed   entirely  legitimate.     Now  it 


206  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

must  be  admitted  that  there  are  in  ancient  history- 
few  more  atrocious  specimens  of  unprincipled,  selfish, 
and  brutal  despotism  than  have  been  exhibited  in 
modern  Europe,  and,  in  the  kingdom  of  the  Two 
Sicilies  at  least,  almost  to  the  present  day.  Yet 
you  will  at  this  moment  find  it  to  be  the  universal 
opinion  in  Christendom,  that  government  has  a  right 
to  exist  only  for  the  sake  of  the  governed  ;  that  the 
selfish  exercise  of  power  is  an  abuse  of  power  ;  that 
hereditary  rights,  where  they  are  recognized,  are  justi- 
fied only  by  the  necessities  of  civic  and  social  order, 
and  that  they  impose  charges  and  services  for  the 
body-politic  fully  equal  to  the  privileges  which  they 
confer.  At  the  present  time  it  is  the  most  absolute 
governments  that  are  the  most  paternal  ;  it  is  the 
most  highly  privileged  aristocracies  that  are  doing 
the  most  for  their  fellow-countrymen  and  for  human- 
ity ;  many  of  those  who  hold  chief  places  in  the  state 
acting  under  the  immediate  influence  of  the  evangelic 
principle,  that  rank  and  authority  can  be  rightfully 
held  only  for  purposes  of  service ;  and  others  fully 
iware  that  this  sentiment  is  so  widely  diffused  that 
they  can  ignore  it  only  to  their  own  ruin.  Strange 
to  say,  there  is  more  of  the  old  heathen  notion  of 
irresponsible  right,  and  less  of  the  spirit  of  service, 
in  the  officials  of  our  own  country  than  in  those  of 
any  other  country  in  Christendom  ;  but,  because  we 
have  retroceded  from  the  days  when  our  great  men 
were  our  chief  servants,  we  should  not  blind  ourselves 
to  the  approach  of  the  whole  sisterhood  of  nations 
to  the  ground  which  it  is  our  honor  to  have  been 


CHRISTIAN  BENEFICENCE.  20*J 

the   first   to   occupy,   our   burning    shame    to    have 
yielded. 

I  have  not  time  to  enter  fully  into  the  various  other 
aspects  in  which  Christianity  has  shown  itself  a  trans- 
forming and  renovating  power.  But  there  is  one  of 
its  benign  ministries,  so  manifest  that  only  he  who 
was  blind  at  noonday  could  overlook  it,  and  so  famil- 
iarly known  as  to  need  no  long  or  labored  exposition. 
I  refer  to  the  various  forms  of  public,  social,  collective, 
institutional  charity.  These  are  all  of  Christian  origin. 
There  was,  undoubtedly,  almsgiving,  kindness,  gener- 
osity, among  the  ancients  of  classic  history,  still  more 
among  the  Hebrews,  whose  poor-laws  —  at  the  Chris- 
tian era  obsolete  —  are  redolent  of  a  more  than  human 
wisdom  and  love ;  but  when  Christ  came,  there  was 
no  organized  provision  for  wants,  needs,  or  infirmities 
of  any  description  ;  no  plan  by  which  the  benefactions 
or  services  of  the  rich  or  the  able  could  be  combined 
and  systematized  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  or  the 
suffering.  The  nearest  approach  to  such  charities 
was  the  distribution  of  wheat  among  the'  Roman 
populace  at  the  charge  of  the  public  treasury,  and 
the  largesses  given  to  the  people  by  aspirants  for 
their  favor.  These,  however,  were  not  regarded  as 
charitable  donatives  ;  but  the  former  a^  the  means  of 
keeping  the  mob  quiet,  the  latter  as  an  outlay  to  be 
remunerated  ten  times  over  when  the  votes  thus 
purchased  should  place  the  plunder  of  a  province  at 
the  candidate's  disposal.  But  no  sooner  was  the 
Christian  Church  gathered  than  the  poor  became 
its  care.    The  primitive  deacons  were  the  first  official 


208  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

guardians  of  the  poor  of  whom  history  gives  us  know- 
ledge. The  earUest  systematic  contribution  for  the 
reUef  of  the  needy  was  that  taken  up  in  the  churches 
out  of  Palestine  for  the  sufferers  by  famine  in  and 
about  Jerusalem.  We  cannot  go  back  to  a  time  when 
almsgiving  was  not  so  essential  a  part  of  the  service 
of  the  eucharist,  that,  with  the  reserved  portions  of 
the  sacred  elements  carried  by  the  deacons  to  all  who 
were  necessarily  absent,  substantial  supplies  from  the 
offertory  were  bestowed  upon  the  needy.  Particular 
types  of  calamity  and  suffering  had  appropriate  pro- 
vision made  for  them.  The  sick,  especially  the  lepers, 
were  sedulously  cared  for  ;  large  sums  were  raised 
for  the  redemption  of  captives  ;  orphan  children 
became  everywhere  the  children  of  the  Church  ; 
strangers,  for  whom  and  enemies  there  had  been 
one  and  the  same  name,  were  now  honored  guests 
for  the  sake  of  him  who  owns,  as  rendered  to  himself, 
every  generous  service  and  kind  office  in  the  name  of 
a  common  humanity.  Even  in  what  are  called  the 
dark  ages,  though  many  lesser  lights  were  veiled,  the 
lamp  of  charity  suffered  no  eclipse ;  and  Christendom 
emerged  from  those  misnamed  centuries,  with  an 
apparatus  of  relief  for  want  and  misery,  considered 
with  reference  to  the  condition  and  habits  of  those 
times,  hardly  less  efficient  than  our  present  modes  of 
philanthropic  ministration. 

To  come  down  to  our  own  day,  when  we  consider 
the  endless  diversity  and  vast  multitude  of  institutions 
and  appliances  for  charitable  ends  of  every  description  ; 
the  immense  number  of  liberal  givers  and  self-devot- 


ARGUMENT  FROM  EXPERIMENT. 


209 


ing  workers  ;  the  still  greater  number  of  those  who, 
like  the  widow  at  the  temple,  contribute  from  their 
poverty  to  the  Lord's  treasury  ;  and  the  uniform  pro- 
portion borne  by  the  sincerity  and  fervor  of  Christian 
faith  and  piety  to  the  promptness  and  fulness  of  offer- 
ings and  services,  —  we  have  but  a  repetition,  magnified 
and  multiplied  a  thousandfold,  of  the  answer  of  Jesus 
to  John's  question,  "  Art  thou  he  that  should  come,  or 
look  we  for  another  "  ? 

I  named  a  second  question  as  belonging  to  the 
subject  of  this  Lecture,  —  Has  any  other  religion  done 
as  much  for  man  as  Christianity  has,  or  even  placed 
itself  in  this  respect  in  favorable  comparison  with 
Christianity  ?  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any 
need  of  adding  a  word  to  the  monosyllabic  answer, 
No.  Certainly  there  is  no  one  of  the  particulars 
that  have  been  named,  in  which  Mohammedanism  or 
Buddhism  can  be  even  alleged  to  have  had  an  equally 
or  similarly  renovating  and  benignant  influence  ;  and 
we  know  of  no  other  religions  which  it  would  not 
be  irrelevant  to  name  in  such  a  connection. 

Christianity,  then,  has  done  for  man  what  it  pro- 
mised to  do  through  the  lips  and  pens  of  its  Author 
and  his  apostles,  and  it  has  performed  for  man  such 
services  as  no  other  religion  has  begun  or  pretended 
to  render.  It  has  thus,  on  an  extended  scale,  as  in  its 
action  on  individual  character,  sustained  the  test  of 
experiment.  It  has  shown  itself  as  from  God  by  doing 
the  works  of  God.  It  has  attested  its  divinity  by  the 
very  marks  and  tokens  which  on  a  priori  grounds  we 
should  expect  a  divine  religion  to  exhibit.     It  has 


210  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

proved  its  heavenly  birth  by  its  heavenly  gifts  and 
ministries  to  man. 

Experiment  thus  confirms  testimony,  and  gives  us 
added  assurance  that  we  are  not  following  cunningly 
devised  fables  when  we  own  in  Jesus  Christ  the  Son 
of  God  and  the  Saviour  of  the  world. 


LECTURE   X. 

III.  INTUITION.  —  SCIENTIFIC  INTUITION.  —  CHRISTIAN  INTUI- 
TION.—  INTUITION  DEFINED.  —  OBJECTIVE  INTUITION.  — 
SUBJECTIVE  INTUITION  OF  CHRISTIAN  ETHICS.— OF  TRUTHS 
APPERTAINING  TO  GOD.  —  OF  TRUTHS  APPERTAINING  TO 
CHRIST.  —  EVIDENTIAL  VALUE   OF   INTUITION.  —  SUMMARY. 

T  PROPOSE  this  evening  to  compare  the  evidence 
-^  of  intuition  for  the  ultimate  and  fundamental 
truths  of  science  with  the  evidence  for  the  alleged 
truths  of  Christianity  derived  from  the  same  source. 

Intuition  is  the  last  test  of  science.  When  facts 
and  phenomena  have  been  duly  collated,  vi^hen  experi- 
ments have  been  fully  made,  when  partial  inductions 
have  been  generalized,  and  a  law  or  principle  of  ex- 
tended application  has  been  reached,  it  seems  to  the 
scientific  man  a  necessary  truth.  He  sees,  not  only 
that  it  is,  but  that  it  must  be.  It  becomes  self-evi- 
dent, and  forms  thenceforward  a  part  of  his  scientific 
consciousness.  No  universal  scientific  truth  is  fully 
established,  until  it  is  thus  intuitively  recognized  as, 
•of  a  priori  necessity,  appertaining  to  the  department  of 
science  which  it  defines  and  comprehends. 

A  like  intuition  the  Christian  possesses  as  the 
result  of  his  experience.  He  may  at  the  outset  rest 
for  his  belief  mainly  on  testimony  ;   he  may  enter  on 


212  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

a  series  of  experiments  in  Christian  living  with  faith 
rather  than  with  knowledge  :  but,  if  he  is  true  to  his 
own  soul,  the  time  comes  when  he  sees  and  knows 
from  his  own  spiritual  intuitions  the  verities  of  his 
religion ;  the  excellence  of  its  precepts  ;  the  beauty, 
holiness,  loveliness,  power  of  its  Author.  There  is  a 
stage  at  which  argument  or  cavil  may  impair  or  over- 
throw his  belief.  There  is  a  stage  at  which  the  truths 
of  Christianity  and  the  divine  attributes  of  its  Founder 
have  so  become  a  part  of  his  own  consciousness,  that 
no  force  of  reasoning  can  by  any  possibility  dislodge 
them.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a  lone  widow,  who  has 
been  a  mark  for  all  the  shafts  of  adverse  fortune. 
Poor,  infirm,  lowly  in  estate,  she  has  no  treasure  but 
her  Bible,  no  hope  but  in  its  promises,  no  fountain  of 
joy  but  that  which  flows  "fast  by  the  oracles  of  God." 
Yet  she  has  a  peace  more  profound,  a  joy  more  in- 
tense, than  worlds  could  give.  Her  soul  is  a  living 
transcript  of  the  evangelic  record.  Her  prayer  is  not 
the  groping  after  an  unknown  God,  but,  as  it  were,  a 
face-to-face  communion.  Her  heaven  is  not  in  the 
far-off  future,  but  in  her  own  beatific  experience. 
She  has  realized  the  promises.  She  has  entered  into 
the  rest  that  remaineth  for  the  people  of  God.  Ply 
her  with  all  the  infidel  arguments  that  have  been 
started  from  the  days  of  Celsus  to  the  present  mo- 
ment, you  cannot  ruflfle  for  an  instant  the  serenity  of 
her  faith  and  trust.  She  knows  whom  she  has  be- 
lieved. His  life  throbs  in  her  veins.  His  words  are 
strung  in  the  living  fibres  of  her  whole  being.  She 
feels  herself  transformed  into  his  image,  —  a  member 


INTUITION  DEFINED.  213 

of  his  body  ;  and  who  shall  separate  her  from  the  love 
of  Christ  ?  Now  this  intuitive  knowledge  of  Chris- 
tianity has  been  possessed  by  thousands  for  every  one 
who  has  intuitive  knowledge  of  scientific  truths. 

It  is,  moreover,  the  prerogative  of  Christianity  over 
all  other  religions  that  its  alleged  truths  can  thus  be- 
come intuitions.  There  could  have  been  no  intuition 
of  the  ceremonial  law,  which  forms  an  essential  part 
of  Judaism.  There  can  be  no  intuition  of  the  vaga- 
ries of  the  Koran,  of  the  avatars  of  the  Hindoo  my- 
thology, of  the  chimaeras  of  Buddhism.  But  there  is 
not  a  (so-called)  truth  of  Christianity,  which,  if  true, 
is  not  of  such  a  nature  that  it  may,  in  some  form  or 
measure,  enter  into  the  consciousness,  and  thus  rest 
on  the  same  evidence  on  which  we  believe  in  our  own 
existence.  This  statement  cannot  indeed  be  made  as 
to  the  individual  facts  of  the  biography  of  Christ,  nor 
yet  as  to  the  objective  side  of  certain  Christian  doc- 
trines :  but  the  facts  of  Christ's  life  are  mere  tokens 
of  and  pointers  to  the  spiritual  relations  in  which  he 
professes  to  stand  to  the  individual  soul,  as  a  sure 
guide,  as  a  safe  exemplar,  as  an  infallible  teacher,  as 
an  all-sufficient  Saviour,  and  these  relations,  if  real, 
may  all  become  subjects  of  consciousness  ;  while  of 
the  doctrines  of  Christianity  there  is  not  one  which  is 
simply  and  solely  objective. 

Let  us  not,  however,  content  ourselves  with  general 
statements.  Let  us  see  what  intuition  comprehends, 
and  how  far,  or  under  what  conditions,  it  is  availing 
as  a  source  of  evidence. 

Intuition  is  inlooking.     It  is  intellectual  perception. 


214  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

It  is  that  apprehension  of  the  truth  which  comes  not 
from  reasoning  or  proof,  but  from  the  nature  of  the 
case,  from  the  nature  of  our  own  minds,  or  both. 
What  we  perceive  intuitively  shines  either  in  its  own 
light,  or  in  light  which  we  ourselves  cast  upon  it.  It 
either  is  self-evident,  or  it  has  the  attestation  of  our 
own  consciousness,  and  need^  no  other  proof. 

Intuition  may  thus  be  either  objective  or  subjective. 
We  may  either  so  look  into  the  object-matter  of  our 
thought  or  inquiry  as  to  see  in  it  that  which  could 
not  but  have  been,  —  that  which,  once  apprehended, 
is  its  own  sufficient  evidence ;  or  we  may  so  look  in 
upon  our  remembered  and  current  experience  as  to 
recognize  in  it  truths  so  manifest  as  to  need  no  other 
proof  than  that  of  consciousness.  Objective  intuition 
has  its  chief  scope  in  the  mathematical  and  physical 
sciences  ;  subjective,  in  mental  and  moral  philosophy. 
Both  objective  and  subjective  are  claimed  in  behalf  of 
Christianity. 

I  will  first  speak  of  objective  intuition.  Christian- 
ity alone  gives  us  a  tenable  theory  of  the  universe. 
Independently  of  revelation,  there  are  in  the  universe 
unmistakable  and  innumerable  tokens  of  design,  and 
thus  of  an  intelligent  Creator  ;  of  beneficent  design, 
and  thus  of  a  merciful  Creator.  There  are,  in  every 
department  of  nature,  not  chance  coincidences,  but 
organisms,  processes,  and  products,  which  are  mani- 
festly adapted  to  the  enjoyment  of  man  and  of  other 
sentient  beings,  and  which  can  have  no  other  destina- 
tion, can  serve  no  other  purpose.  There  are,  on  the 
other  hand,  no  organisms,  processes,  or  products,  of 


PROBLEM  OF  EVIL.  215 

which  the  necessary  and  inevitable  tendency  is  the 
creation  of  pain,  grief,  or  misery ;  but  in  the  course 
of  events  physical  evil  is  incidental,  or  subsidiary  to 
greater  good  ;  its  agencies,  such  as  may  be  evaded, 
controlled,  neutralized,  often  transformed  and  utilized, 
so  that  in  proportion  to  the  growth  of  man's  intelli- 
gence they  become  subject  to  his  command,  and  con- 
stantly tend  to  disappear.  Man's  own  native  powers 
of  mind  and  soul,  in  their  normal  exercise,  in  the  only 
exercise  of  them  which  the  developed  intellect  can 
approve,  tend  to  his  self-respect,  his  growth  in  intel- 
ligence and  capacity,  and  his  enduring  happiness. 
There  is,  however,  in  human  society,  and  there  has 
been  in  all  past  ages,  an  overwhelming  amount  of 
degradation  and  misery,  almost  all  of  which  is  visibly 
due  to  the  depraved  will  of  man.  To  this  are  charge- 
able, not  only  the  immediate  consequences  of  vice 
and  sin,  but  as  surely,  though  less  directly,  by  far  the 
larger  part  of  the  poverty,  hardship,  and  physical  in- 
firmity and  suffering  in  the  world  ;  for  in  a  commu- 
nity of  saints  there  would  be  no  abject  want,  no  social 
oppression  or  depression,  and  probably  an  ever-dimin- 
ishing heritage  of  bodily  disease  and  pain. 

That  a  beneficent  Creator  should  suffer  this  deterio- 
rated condition  of  what  is  in  potential  capacity  his 
noblest  work  upon  earth  to  remain  uncared  for,  is 
inconceivable.  That  he  should  provide  in  man  and 
around  him  all  possible  powers  of  and  materials  for 
happiness,  and  yet  leave  him  to  make  himself  vile, 
and  to  bequeath  from  generation  to  generation,  to  the 
end  of  time,  an  accumulating  burden  of  depravity 


2l6  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

and  misery,  would  imply  either  a  lack  of  power,  which 
cannot  be  in  him  whose  Omnipotence  has  its  record 
in  the  vastness,  order,  and  harmony  of  creation  ;  or 
a  lack  of  love,  which  cannot  be  in  him  whose  tender 
mercy  is  manifested  in  every  realm,  nay,  in  every 
nook,  cranny,  and  crevice  of  the  universe,  which  is 
not  perverted  or  made  unfruitful  by  human  guilt. 
Free  agency,  which  is  essential  to  man's  highest  dig- 
nity and  happiness,  may,  indeed,  in  the  nature  of 
things  have  rendered  his  fall  and  guilt  inevitable,  not- 
withstanding the  infinite  goodness  of  God  ;  and  it 
may  be  of  inestimable  benefit  to  the  race  as  a  whole 
that  man  should  have  been  left  in  the  earlier  stages 
of  his  history  to  solve  all  great  moral  problems  by  a 
sad  experience,  which,  we  believe,  is  to  have  immeas- 
urably more  than  its  counterpart  in  the  ultimate  reign 
of  righteousness.  But  we  should  antecedently  expect 
to  find  in  the  divine  economy  the  antidote  and  remedy 
for  moral  evil.  This  antidote,  this  remedy,  can  consist 
only  in  God's  revelation  of  his  being  and  will ;  in  the 
establishing  on  the  earth  of  a  regenerating  agency  ;  in 
the  forgiveness  of  sins  repented  and  forsaken  ;  in  help 
for  those  who  seek  to  be  delivered  from  inherited  or 
acquired  proclivity  to  evil ;  in  a  power  of  amelioration 
and  progress  for  the  race  in  this  world  ;  and  in  a  state 
of  being  in  which  human  virtue,  at  best  imperfect  and 
inchoate  here,  yet  capable  of  indefinite  growth,  may 
have  its  full  consummation.  In  Christianity,  and 
nowhere  else,  we  have  precisely  what  might  have 
been  thus  anticipated.  We  have  a  revelation  of  God 
in  the  person  of  Christ,  of  the  law  of  God  in  his  pre- 


THEORY  OF  THE   UNIVERSE.  217 

cepts  and  his  life  ;  a  regenerating  power  in  his  whole 
earthly  ministry  ;  the  forgiveness  of  sins  in  his  cross 
and  sacrifice  ;  help  for  our  infirmities  in  the  Holy 
Spirit,  proceeding  from  the  Father  and  the  Son  in 
accordance  with  his  promise;  a  power  of  progress  in 
his  everlasting  Gospel ;  eternal  life  made  manifest 
in  his  resurrection.  Moreover,  by  his  emphatic 
recognition  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  as  authentic, 
we  learn  that  God  had  never  "left  himself  without 
witness  "  in  the  world ;  that  primeval  revelation  pre- 
ceded even  man's  first  transgression  ;  that  the  knowl- 
edge of  divine  things,  given  to  man,  was  lost  by 
man  ;  that  this  knowledge  was  at  intervals  renewed, 
only  to  be  circumscribed  and  obscured  by  the  depraved 
wills  of  those  on  whom  it  was  bestowed  ;  and  thus 
that  Christ  came,  not  after  ages  in  which  God  had 
abandoned  men  wholly  to  their  own  evil  devices,  but 
as  the  supreme  term  of  a  culminating  series  of  inter- 
positions on  his  part  for  the  relief,  reformation,  and 
spiritual  training  of  his  human  family. 

We  thus,  and  thus  only,  can  reconcile  the  history  of 
man  with  the  being,  omnipotence,  and  infinite  love  of 
God.  We  thus,  and  thus  only,  have  a  rational  and  con- 
sistent theory  of  the  universe,  —  a  God  who  has  never 
forsaken  his  own  work  ;  a  free  agency  whose  proclivity 
to  evil  has  never  been  left  without  check  or  remedy ; 
a  redemption  and  everlasting  salvation  for  all  who, 
under  whatever  culture,  are  faithful  to  such  light  as 
they  have  received  and  such  law  as  they  know  ;  a 
provision  by  which,  without  annulling  human  freedom, 
sin  is  to  be  purged  away,  the  right  to  culminate,  and 


2l8  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

the  reign  of  God  to  be  ultimately  established  in  the 
realm  of  living  souls  no  less  than  in  outward  nature. 
The  system  is  coherent  and  complete.  It  satisfies, 
if  I  may  so  speak,  the  scientific  consciousness.  To 
the  Christian  it  not  only  seems  to  be  true,  but  he 
cannot  conceive  of  its  not  being  true.  It  comes  to 
him  through  what  he  receives  as  the  record  of 
divine  revelation;  but  it  justifies  itself,  —  it  is  its 
own  evidence.  Still  more,  it  adds  confirmation  to 
the  v6ry  record  from  which  it  is  derived.  We  are 
certain,  from  such  evidence  as  has  been  presented 
in  former  Lectures,  that  the  Gospels  are  genuine 
and  authentic ;  but  evidence  of  a  different  and  even 
higher  type  is  furnished  by  the  coherence  of  their 
contents  among  themselves,  and  with  what  beside 
is  known  of  God  and  man.  I  say,  evidence  of  a 
higher,  not  a  surer  type  :  for  testimony  may  be  — 
and  is,  as  I  have  attempted  to  show  you  in  this 
matter  —  sufficiently  multiform,  explicit,  and  strong, 
to  produce  absolute  certainty  of  conviction  ;  yet 
there  is  a  more  vivid  and  realizing  sense  of  the 
veracity  of  the  sacred  records,  when  their  contents 
thus  present  intrinsic  tokens  of  their  truth.  While 
testimony  prepares  the  way  for  intuition,  intuition 
calls  forth  the  testimony  of  our  own  apprehensive 
powers  to  supplement  the  witnesses  from  without, 
—  indeed,  transfers  us  from  the  number  of  those 
who  depend  on  testimony  to  the  list  of  those  who 
themselves  bear  testimony. 

We  pass  now  to  subjective  intuition,  or  the  evidence 
of  Christian  consciousness.     As  I  have  said,  there  is 


INTUITIVE  EVIDENCE   OF  ETHICAL    TRUTH.     219 

no  alleged  truth  of  Christianity  which  may  not  be 
tried  by  this  test,  and  in  behalf  of  which  this  evi- 
dence is  not  claimed.  Such  is  the  case,  in  the  first 
place,  with  the  ethics  of  the  Gospel.  There  were 
in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and  in  various  other 
portions  of  the  teachings  of  Christ  not  a  few  things 
so  entirely  opposed  to  the  mind,  voice,  and  practice 
of  antiquity,  as  to  have  made  a  hard  strain  upon  the 
faith  even  of  the  most  docile  hearers.  It  is  worthy 
of  remark  that  it  was  not  any  dogmatic  statement, 
but  the  command  to  forgive  an  offending  brother 
seven  times  in  a  day,  that  called  forth  the  exclama- 
tion from  the  disciples,  "  Lord,  increase  our  faith,"  — 
forbearance  that  could  not  be  wearied  out  by  perti- 
nacity in  wrong-doing  seemed  to  them  so  utterly 
unreasonable  and  impossible.  Indeed,  had  not  their 
Master  embodied  his  precept  in  his  life,  and  re- 
enacted  it  on  the  cross  in  the  prayer  for  his  mur- 
derers, it  may  be  doubted  whether  his  followers 
would  ever  have  had  faith  enough  to  make  experi- 
ment of  it.  But  no  one  has  made  trial  of  it,  and 
persevered  in  so  doing,  who  has  not  been  profoundly 
conscious  of  its  divine  excellence  ;  for  it  has  been  as 
proof-armor  to  the  soul  against  all  assaults  from  with- 
out ;  it  has  blunted  the  keenest  weapons  of  calumny 
and  malevolence  ;  it  has  kept  the  spirit  in  sweet  seren- 
ity under  insult,  provocation,  and  violence,  and  has 
made  it  more  than  conqueror  in  its  conflicts  with  evil. 
Similar  has  been  uniform  Christian  experience  as 
to  the  seeming  paradox  that  "it  is  more  blessed  to 
give  than  to  receive."     The  imperial  glutton  craved 


220  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

a  hundred  palates,  that  he  might  multiply  indefinitely 
the  coarse  indulgence  of  the  table.  His  brutal  wish 
is  the  type  of  what  has  been  enjoyed  by  those  who 
have  followed  their  Master  as  he  went  about  doing 
good.  They  have  inwardly  fed  at  every  table  that 
they  have  spread  for  the  needy.  They  have  drunk 
living  waters  from  every  fountain  and  rivulet  of 
charity  that  has  flowed  from  their  fulness,  or  trick- 
led from  the  scanty,  yet  glad  munificence  of  their 
penury.  They  have  had  as  many  sources  of  pure 
felicity  as  there  are  hearts  and  lives  that  they  have 
made  happy.  Above  all,  when  by  example,  influence, 
and  active  effort,  they  have  healed  men's  spiritual 
infirmities,  shed  light  upon  their  darkened  souls,  led 
their  wandering  steps  into  the  path  of  eternal  salva- 
tipn,  they  have  literally  entered  into  the  joy  of  their 
Lord,  have  received  immeasurably  more  than  they 
gave,  have  drawn  a  revenue  beyond  all  proportion  to 
their  expenditure,  have  had  in  their  own  beatific 
consciousness  the  foregleamings  of  the  heaven  to 
which  they  have  pointed  and  led  the  way. 

Thus,  also,  have  those  who  have  made  trial  of 
humility  found  in  it  exaltation.  It  has  raised  them 
above  the  world.  It  has  given  them  an  unassailable 
position  among  their  brethren.  It  has  in  unnumbered 
instances  brought  them  much  larger  honor  and  pro- 
founder  deference  than  they  disclaimed  ;  and  even 
when  this  has  not  been  the  case,  it  has  fortified 
them  against  disesteem  and  misappreciation  by  the 
consciousness  of  the  honor  that  comes  from  God, 
and   by  the  realizing  foresight  of  the   chief  places 


EFFICACY  OF  PRAYER,  221 

that  shall  be  theirs,  when  the  Lord  shall  find  them 
in  the  lowest  room,  and  shall  say  to  them,  "  My 
friends,  go  up  higher." 

A  like  consciousness  attests  the  truths  concerning 
God  in  his  relations  to  man,  promulgated  through 
Christ.  The  divine  Providence  is  a  truth  of  con- 
sciousness. That  "all  things  work  together  for 
good  to  those  who  love  God,"  the  mature  Christian 
needs  no  longer  to  learn  from  the  record  of  the 
apostle ;  for  the  apostle's  experience  is  repeated 
in  his  own  soul.  As  he  looks  back  on  the  way  in 
which  God  has  led  him,  he  sees  that  it  was  for  him 
the  safe  and  the  best  way.  He  has  had  trials,  but 
they  have  strengthened  his  faith  and  deepened  his 
joy.  He  has  had  sorrows  ;  but  the  bread  of  affliction 
has  been  to  him  the  bread  of  life,  —  in  the  valley  of 
weeping  he  has  drunk  of  fountains  that  flow  from 
the  river  before  the  throne  of  God.  He  has  parted 
from  those  with  whom  half  his  own  life  seemed  to  go  ; 
but  they  have  opened  for  him  new  avenues  to  the 
upper  rooms  in  his  Father's  house.  He  has  had 
experiences  that  have  loosened  his  roots  in  his  native 
soil ;  but  the  vine,  unearthed,  has  struck  out  tendrils 
that  have  clung  closer  and  climbed  higher  around  the 
tree  of  eternal  life.  Thus  in  the  faithful  soul  is  God's 
loving  providence  so  fully  verified,  that  no  words  of 
holy  writ  can  bear  to  it  more  explicit  testimony  than 
is  borne  by  the  inner  consciousness  of  the  believer. 
The  efficacy  of  prayer  is  verified  in  like  manner. 
The  Christian  knows  that  he  has  never  prayed  in 
vain.     True,  there  have  been  specific  petitions  that 


222  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

have  not  had  their  specific  answers  ;  but  even  these 
have  been  more  than  answered.  So  was  it  with  Jesus 
himself,  and  it  is  enough  for  the  disciple  that  he  be 
as  his  Master.  He  prayed  that  the  cup  might  pass 
from  him,  —  it  passed  not ;  but  there  appeared  an 
angel  from  heaven,  strengthening  him.  So  the  great 
apostle  prayed  that  "  the  thorn  in  the  flesh  "  —  some 
bodily  infirmity  which  he  feared  would  prove  dis- 
abling—  might  be  removed,  —  it  was  not  removed; 
but  it  was  said  to  him,  "  My  grace  is  sufficient  for 
thee  ;  for  my  strength  is  made  perfect  in  weakness," 
and  he  thenceforth  gloried  in  his  infirmities,  through 
and  above  which  the  power  of  Christ  rested  upon  him. 
The  Christian  finds  that  prayer  and  sin,  prayer  and 
hopeless  sorrow,  cannot  coexist  ;  that  prayer  disarms 
temptation,  renders  prosperity  safe  and  adversity 
sweet,  makes  work  worship  and  joy  gratitude,  his 
home  a.  sanctuary,  the  house  of  merchandise  his 
Father's  house.  It  more  than  keeps  the  soul ;  for 
it  gives  over  its  guardianship  to  him  of  whom  it  is 
written,  "  He  that  keepeth  thee  will  not  slumber." 
Thus  does  the  consciousness  of  the  praying  soul 
bear  perpetual  testimony  to  the  words  of  Jesus, 
"  Ask,  and  it  shall  be  given  you ;  seek,  and  ye 
shall  find ;  knock,  and  it  shall  be  opened  unto 
you." 

Christian  consciousness  equally  attests  the  truths 
appertaining  to  Christ  in  his  relation  to  the  human 
soul.  Do  you  ask.  How  is  it  that  in  this  field  of 
thought  there  have  been  so  many  diverse,  nay, 
opposite   theories,   while   a    common    consciousness 


HARMONY  OF  CHRISTIAN  INTUITIONS.        223 

ought  to  make  some  approach  to  a  common  ex- 
pression of  itself  ?  I  answer,  that  the  dogmatic  dif- 
ferences among  Christians  relate  to  those  aspects 
of  Christ's  nature  and  work  which  cannot  be  subjects 
of  consciousness  ;  while  as  to  the  part  which  he  bears 
in  Christian  experience  there  is  a  substantial  agree- 
ment. Who  Christ  is,  cannot  be  determined  by  mjr 
consciousness  ;  but  I  can  know  what  he  does,  what 
he  is,  for  me,  to  me,  and  in  me.  There  is  a  divine 
side  of  Christ's  work  of  redemption  of  which  I  can- 
not be  conscious  ;  but  if  he  has  wrought  that  work 
for  and  in  me,  I  can  know  from  my  own  conscious- 
ness the  blessedness  of  having  received  the  atonement, 
—  the  inward  assurance  of  forgiveness  and  reconcili- 
ation with  God,  —  the  peace,  not  as  the  world  gives, 
which  flows  from  the  heart  of  Christ  into  the  heart  of 
his  disciple.  In  fine,  the  Christian  is  inwardly  con- 
scious of  influences  at  work  in  his  heart  and  upon 
his  life,  which  precisely  correspond  to  the  power  of 
Christ's  death  and  the  power  of  his  resurrection,  — 
influences  of  which  he  had  no  experience  till  he  came 
v/ithin  the  sphere  of  Christ's  attraction,  of  which  he 
cannot  conceive  as  flowing  from  any  other  source,  and 
through  which  he  feels  that  he  is  brought  into  a  vital 
union  with  Christ,  corresponding  to  that  of  the  branch 
with  the  parent-vine.  The  physiology,  if  I  may  so 
term  it,  of  Christian  regeneration  is  described  with  no 
little  diversity  of  nomenclature ;  but  the  phenomena 
of  consciousness  which  attend  it  —  the  death  to  sin, 
the  consecrated  will,  the  affections  set  on  things 
above,  the   fruits  of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  the  heart 


224  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

and  life  —  are  the  same  in  those  whose  formal 
theories  vary  however  widely  ;  and  they  are  such 
phenomena  as  are  not  alleged  to  be  produced  by 
any  other  than  Christian  belief,  culture,  or  influence. 

To  the  individual  soul  this  consciousness  of  Chris- 
tian verities  is,  of  course,  the  most  convincing  of  all 
proofs,  surpassing  even  objective  intuition.  What 
one  feels  he  cannot  but  believe  ;  and  when  there  has 
been  for  him  a  source  from  which  he  knows  that  he 
has  derived  peculiar  inward  experiences,  it  is  impos- 
sible that  he  should  not  associate  the  source  and  the 
experiences  as  cause  and  effect.  He,  the  better  part 
of  whose  being  and  life  has  taken  shape  consciously 
through  the  instrumentality  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 
so  far  as  outward  means  are  concerned,  and,  inwardly, 
through  an  influence  upon  the  soul  corresponding  in 
all  its  characteristics  to  the  influence  which  Jesus 
promised  should  rest  upon  his  followers,  cannot  but 
believe  in  Christ  and  his  Gospel  with  a  positiveness 
and  strength  of  conviction  such  as  experience  alone 
can  produce. 

We  now  arrive  at  the  question,  What  is  the  eviden- 
tial value  of  intuition  to  those  outside  of  the  Christian 
circle  }  Can  the  scientific  or  spiritual  consciousness 
of  one  man  be  made  availing  to  another,  and,  if  so, 
how  t  I  answer,  first,  that  the  attitude  in  which 
intuitive  conviction  places  the  Christian  believer, 
inspires,  extends,  deepens  such  faith  as  falls  short 
of  intuition.  When  those  who  call  themselves  Chris- 
tians have  a  faith  like  Penelope's  web,  daily  unravelled 
and  rewoven,  yielding  to  every  show  of  cavil  or  scepti- 


EVIDENTIAL    WORTH  OF  INTUITION.  225 

cism,  bending  before  every  adverse  blast,  Christianity 
receives  ghastly  wounds  in  the  house  of  its  professed 
friends,  is  tolerated  rather  than  honored  by  those 
outside  of  its  household,  and,  so  far  from  making 
new  converts,  drops  from  time  to  time  those  who 
hang  loosely  on  its  skirts.  Equally,  when  the  faith 
that  exists,  though  firm  and  unyielding,  is  traditional 
and  not  vital,  when  the  Church  clings  to  its  belief  with- 
out being  penetrated  by  its  spirit  and  its  power,  un- 
belief prevails.  The  epochs  when  infidelity  has  been 
most  rampant  have  been  those  at  which  externality 
rather  than  inwardness  has  been  the  prevailing  type  of 
the  religious  life  ;  and,  whenever  that  life  has  been  so 
rekindled  as  to  present  the  spectacle  of  intense  and 
glowing  vitality,  unbelief  has  been  arrested  in  its 
progress,  and  new  confidence  in  Christian  verities 
has  taken  possession  of  the  collective  mind  of  the 
community.  Such  faith  —  sincere,  no  doubt,  of  its 
kind,  but  dead-sicre  —  as  existed  in  the  licentious 
court  and  the  time-serving  clergy  of  the  age  of  Louis 
XIV.,  was  among  the  chief  causes  of  the  French 
infidelity  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  eminent 
champions  of  infidelity  in  England  and  Scotland, 
during  the  same  century,  were  nurtured  in  the 
bosom  of  the  easy-going  Erastianism  and  luke- 
warmness  of  the  national  churches.  Its  tide  waa 
turned,  not  by  the  masterly  and  unanswerable  de- 
fences of  Christianity  which  it  called  forth,  but  by 
the  infusion  of  spiritual  life,  alike  into  the  establish- 
ments and  the  dissenting  churches,  under  the  auspi- 
ces of  Whitefield,  Wesley,  and  their  coadjutors.    Men 

10* 


226  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

ceased  to  doubt  and  cavil  when  they  witnessed  a  faith 
which  indicated  a  profound,  active,  and  influential 
consciousness  of  its  contents. 

Similar  views  would  present  themselves  throughout 
Christendom,  and  in  every  period  of  its  history.  At 
the  present  moment,  you  might  go  from  place  to 
place,  and  in  each  community,  in  and  around  every 
congregation,  you  would  find  that  the  amount  and 
strength  of  belief  on  the  part  of  those  not  within 
the  circle  of  professed  Christian  experience  bear  a 
very  close  proportion  to  the  inwardness  and  energy 
of  the  faith  of  Christian  men  and  women :  the 
quiescent,  worldly,  and  formalistic  church  being 
surrounded  by  people  who  either  avow  their  scep- 
ticism, or  do  not  think  the  subject  of  sufficient  im- 
portance for  them  to  take  any  cognizance  of  it ; 
the  living  church,  surrounded  by  those  who  give 
religion  their  assent,  respect,  and  honor,  and  lie 
open  to  influences  that  may  win  them  to  sincere 
discipleship.  This  principle  underlies  all  successful 
revivalism.  Nothing  can  be  done  outside  of  the 
Church,  till  its  inward  life  is  renewed.  The  sole 
error  of  revivalism  is  that  it  seeks  to  make  occasional 
and  paroxysmal  that  which  ought  to  be  constant  and 
perennial ;  for  did  the  light  shine  as  it  ought  and 
might  always  in  the  heart  of  the  Church,  it  would  be 
seen  all  the  time,  and  there  would  be  no  pause  in  the 
accession  of  those  who,  seeing  it,  would  give  glory  to 
their  Father  in  heaven. 

Nor  is  the  conviction  thus  produced  mere  feeling. 
It  has  a  logical  basis.     Intuition  is  a  valid  argument 


WORTH  OF  OBJECTIVE  INTUITION.  227 

to  those  who  have  not  attained  to  it.  Even  objective 
intuition  is  so.  It  is  constantly  admitted  in  other 
departments  than  reUgion.  Of  those  who  learn  and 
impHcitly  believe  the  truths  of  science,  of  astronomy 
for  instance,  by  far  the  greater  number  do  not  occupy 
a  position  in  which  they  can  have  a  clear  scientific 
consciousness  of  them.  Were  these  truths  in  the 
minds  of  their  representative  men  mere  hypotheses, 
they  would  be  no  more  than  hypotheses  to  other 
intelligent  persons.  But  we  take  them  on  trust  and 
believe  them  without  a  question,  because  we  are  as- 
sured by  those  who  have  given  their  lives  to  their 
investigation  that  they  are  so  related  to  one  another 
and  to  the  phenomena  of  the  universe,  that  they  can- 
not but  be  true.  Now  it  seems  to  me  that  we  are 
similarly  impressed  by  the  clear  vision  of  religious 
truth,  which  has  been  a  characteristic  of  the  greatest 
minds  of  these  Christian  ages.  It  is  of  no  small 
worth  to  an  intellect  of  feebler  grasp  that  to  such 
men  as  Milton,  Newton,  Boyle,  Locke,  Pascal,  and  a 
host  beside  that  might  be  named,  Christianity  has 
seemed  self-evident,  shining  in  its  own  unborrowed 
light,  incapable  of  being  obscured  by  doubt  or  cavil. 
These  men,  indeed,  believed  with  the  heart  no  less 
than  with  the  intellect ;  but  their  mere  intellectual 
intuition  is  of  itself  an  independent  ground  of  argu- 
ment. They  were  men  in  whom  feeling  could  not 
have  preceded  or  produced  belief,  as  in  many  lesser 
minds.  The  eyes  of  their  understanding  were  wide 
open.  They  had  before  them  the  grounds  of  unbe- 
lief ;  they  could  see  round  and  through  the  objects  of 


228  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

their  faith  ;  and  that  their  faith  was  clear  as  sight 
and  impregnable  to  doubt,  may  well  give  reassurance 
to  intellects  of  less  keen  and  comprehensive  vision. 

But,  above  all,  subjective  intuition  furnishes  valid 
ground  for  belief.  The  Christian  camp  presents, 
indeed,  not  a  homogeneous  aspect,  but  unnumbered 
rival  hosts,  often  turning  their  arms  against  one 
another  rather  than  against  the  common  enemy.  Yet 
there  are  points  of  view  from  which  their  differences 
are  merged,  their  enmities  harmonized.  There  are 
certain  traits  which  are  common  to  the  best  men  of 
all  sects.  The  definition  of  the  Christian  spirit  and 
life  given  by  one  would  be  accepted  by  all.  The  same 
manuals  of  practical  piety  are  in  the  hands  of  all. 
The  same  Christian  lyrics  are  sung  with  equal  fervor 
in  sanctuaries  that  stand  over  against  each  other  like 
Zion  and  Gerizim.  To  the  prayers  of  each  all  would 
add  a  hearty  amen.  Were  they  brought  together, 
forbidden  the  use  of  technical  phraseology,  and  in- 
duced to  utter  in  the  simplest  language  their  several 
modes  of  consciousness  as  to  what  Christ  had  done 
for  them,  their  duty  to  God,  to  Christ,  to  man,  their 
abnegation  of  self-dependence,  their  trust  in  a  divine 
redemption,  their  hope  full  of  immortality,  there  would 
be  no  Babel-like  confusion  of  tongues,  as  when  they 
parade  their  distinctive  dogmas,  but  a  sweet  concent 
and  heavenly  harmony.  Now  those  who  would  thus 
with  one  heart  and  voice  reveal  a  common  conscious- 
ness are  the  foremost  men  in  the  esteem  of  their  fel- 
low-men, the  leaders  in  all  good  works,  —  those  whose 
lives   are   confessedly  pure,  true,  faithful,  generous. 


WORTH  OF  SUBJECTIVE  INTUITION.  229 

holy.  Is  there  not  in  the  united  testimony  of  such 
men  of  all  ages,  nations,  and  sects,  evidence  of  no 
mean  worth  to  that  which  they  all  affirm  ;  namely, 
that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Sent  of  God,  the  Saviour 
of  men,  the  Source  of  all  excellence,  the  Inspirer 
of  all  virtue,  the  Way  to  the  Father,  the  incarnate 
Truth,  the  eternal  Life  made  manifest  ? 

As  in  thought  I  take  my  stand  outside  of  the  Church, 
of  any  church,  I  am  profoundly  moved  by  the  una- 
nimity of  this  cloud  of  witnesses.  Supposing  myself 
not  even  in  the  humblest  measure  a  partaker  of  their 
consciousness,  I  see  evidently  that  it  is  in  them  not 
mere  belief,  but  consciousness ;  that  they  are  in 
their  inmost  souls  so  identified  with  Christ  that  you 
cannot  separate  them  from  him,  with  his  Gospel  that 
you  cannot  wrest  it  from  their  hearts  ;  that  to  them, 
literally,  ''to  live  is  Christ."  I  must  believe  that 
which  is  so  interwoven  with  their  whole  being  a  real- 
ity, even  though  it  have  not  become  a  reality  to  me. 
I  must  give  my  assent,  though  I  be  not  yet  ready  to 
give  my  consent.  The  elect  spirits  of  my  race  cannot 
be  the  slaves  of  a  puerile  superstition.  Falsity  and 
delusion  cannot  bear  the  noblest  fruits  that  have  ever 
ripened  on  earthly  ground.  Their  lives  give  to  their 
testimony  a  confirmation  which  I  cannot  disallow. 
Their  manifest  consciousness  must  constrain  my 
faith.  The  Gospel  which  they  profess  not  to  believe, 
but  to  know  as  the  truth,  has  proved  itself  to  and  in 
them  "  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  "  from  folly 
and  sin  ;  and  can  I  doubt  that  the  salvation  is  divine 
and  everlasting,  as  they  believe  it  to  be } 


230  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

We  thus  see  that  as  to  intuition  science  and  Chris- 
tianity occupy  the  same  ground,  with  this  advantage 
on  the  side  of  Christianity,  that  the  intuition  is  more 
intimate  and  vital,  permeating  the  whole  being, 
moulding  the  character,  and  manifesting  its  reality 
and  intensity  in  the  life  to  which  it  gives  aim,  direc- 
tion, and  end.  How  then,  from  the  outer  circle,  can 
I  accept  the  intuitions  of  scientific  men,  and  reject 
those  of  Christian  men  ?  Or  if  I  can  with  my  own 
inward  vision  gain  some  clear  and  self-evidencing 
views  of  scientific  truth,  and  at  the  same  time  trust 
that  I  have  some  measure  of  insight,  independent  of 
and  above  external  proof,  into  Christian  verities,  how 
can  I  yield  credence,  as  I  must,  to  the  former,  and  yet 
suffer  aught  of  incredulity  or  doubt  to  obscure  the 
latter  ? 

I  have  now  completed  the  plan  which  I  announced 
in  my  first  Lecture.  There  is  in  our  time  no  scepti- 
cism as  to  science,  but  only  too  willing  assent  to 
whatever  purports  or  claims  to  be  science,  though 
only  in  the  form  of  postulates  or  hypotheses.  The 
established  truths  of  science  no  one  is  so  bold  as  to 
call  in  question.  Scientific  truth  rests  on  the  joint 
evidence  of  testimony,  experiment,  and  intuition.  I 
have  shown  you  that  Christianity  has  in  its  behalf 
testimony  unequalled  in  its  clearness,  fulness,  and 
validity ;  experiment,  in  a  vast  diversity  of  forms,  in 
numberless  individual  instances,  and  in  the  history  of 
the  civilized  world  for  these  eighteen  centuries  ;  and 
professed  and  manifest  intuition,  on  the  part  of  the 
greatest  and  best  of  our  race  through  these  same  cen- 


RELATIONS  OF  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE.   23 1 

turies, —  I  trust,  also,  in  the  minds  of  not  a  few  who 
have  hstened  to  me,  and  have  borne  witness  in  their 
own  consciousness  to  the  divine  worth  and  power  of 
the  everlasting  Gospel,  and  of  him  who  is  the  be- 
liever's hope.  Science  and  Christianity  rest  on  the 
same  foundations.  Let  no  one,  then,  suppose  that  he 
does  honor  to  Christianity  by  jealousy  of  science.  Let 
no  one  imagine  that  he  serves  science  by  discrediting 
Christianity.  They  are  equally  divine,  equally  from 
the  inspiration  of  God,  and  each  has  essential  minis- 
tries for  the  other.  Science  illustrates  the  very  attri- 
butes of  the  Supreme  Being  which  Christianity 
proclaims  ;  while  Christianity  prepares  only  the  more 
generous  receptivity  for  the  truth  which  God  has 
written  on  all  things  that  he  has  made.  May  we  not, 
then,  join  in  the  prayer  of  the  great  instaurator  of  the 
inductive  philosophy }  "  This  also  we  humbly  and 
earnestly  beg,  —  that  human  things  may  not  prejudice 
such  as  are  divine ;  neither  that  from  the  unlocking 
of  the  gates  of  sense,  and  the  kindling  of  a  greater 
natural  light,  any  thing  may  arise  of  incredulity  or 
intellectual  night  towards  divine  mysteries  ;  but 
rather  that  by  our  minds  thoroughly  purged  and 
cleansed  from  fancy  and  vanity,  and  yet  subject  and 
perfectly  given  up  to  the  divine  oracles,  there  may  be 
given  unto  faith  the  things  that  are  faith's." 


APPENDIX. 


I. 

THE  apostles  were,  of  necessity,  the  most  authentic 
witnesses  as  to  what  Jesus  was,  said,  and  did.  An 
express  and  formal  analysis  of  their  testimony  would  have 
been  given  in  the  foregoing  Lectures,  had  not  the  author 
delivered  and  published  a  Lecture  on  this  subject  in  the 
third  course  of  Boston  Lectures  on  Christianity  and  Scepti- 
cism. Leave  has  been  obtained  to  reprint  that  Lecture  in  the 
present  volume,  as  an  essential  part  of  the  argument  from 
testimony.  It  is  reprinted  without  omission  or  alteration  • 
for,  though  a  small  portion  of  it  is  parallel  in  thought,  and 
one  or  two  sentences  nearly  identical  in  language,  with 
portions  of  the  preceding  volume,  these  passages  could 
not  have  been  omitted  or  changed  without  mutilating  the 
argument  of  which  they  form  a  part. 


THE  TESTIMONY   OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

"D  ENAN'S  Life  of  Jesus,  which  before  the  Franco- 
•*-^  Prussian  war  had  reached  in  the  original  its 
thirteenth  edition,  besides  not  a  few  in  its  English 
dress,  is  now  the  gospel  of  the  doubting  and  unbe- 
lieving on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  and  will  remain 
so  till  some  one  bolder  or  more  subtle  than  he  shall 
displace  him,  as  he  displaced  Strauss.  His  book  is 
a  charming  one  in  its  delineations  of  everybody  and 
everything  but  Christ.  In  his  chapter  on  the  orig- 
inal disciples,  he  gives  a  very  vivid  sketch  of  their 
respective  individualities  ;  and  both  in  his  "  Life  of 
Jesus  "  and  in  his  work  on  the  Apostles,  he  acknowl- 
edges the  authenticity  of  the  accounts  we  have  of  them, 
the  miraculous  narratives  alone  excepted.  There  is  in 
the  Introduction  to  his  "  Life  of  Jesus,"  one  very  ex- 
traordinary testimony  to  the  truth  of  the  evangelic 
history,  which  I  cannot  forbear  quoting. 

"  I  have  traversed  in  every  direction  the  district 
where  the  scenes  of  the  Gospel  are  laid.  I  have  vis- 
ited Jerusalem,  Hebron,  and  Samaria.  Almost  no 
site  named  in  the  story  of  Jesus  has  escaped  me. 
All  this  narrative,  which  at  a  distance  seems  to  float 
in  the  clouds  of  an  unreal  world,  thus  assumed  a 
body,  a  substaiitial  existence,  which  astonished  me. 


SACRIFICES  OF  THE  APOSTLES.  235 

The  striking  coincidence  of  texts  and  places,  the 
wonderful  harmony  of  the  ideal  of  the  Gospels  with 
the  country  which  served  as  its  frame,  was  for  me  a 
revelation.  I  had  before  my  eyes  a  fifth  Gospel,  and 
thenceforth  through  the  stories  of  Matthew  and  Mark, 
instead  of  an  abstract  being  who  one  might  say  had 
never  existed,  I  saw  in  life  and  movement  a  human 
form  that  challenged  admiration." 

In  fine,  Renan  treats  the  entire  New-Testament 
history  as  an  unquestionable  record  of  actual  histori- 
cal personages  and  events,  except  where  the  super- 
natural element  crops  out  in  the  narrative  ;  thus  far, 
at  least,  showing  himself  both  a  clear-sighted  and  an 
honest  critic.  In  point  of  fact,  the  historical  books 
of  the  New  Testament  have  at  once  so  many  external 
proofs  and  internal  tokens  of  their  authenticity,  as  to 
leave  no  question  concerning  the  substantial  truth  of 
their  narrative  of  ordinary  events,  however  we  may 
dispose  of  the  abnormal  incidents  they  record. 

Resting,  then,  on  the  admitted  authenticity  of  this 
narrative,  I  propose  to  draw  from  the  apostles  who 
bear  in  it  so  prominent  a  part  such  testimony  as  they 
offer  in  behalf  of  their  Lord  and  Master. 

In  the  first  place,  there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt 
that  of  eleven  of  these  apostles,  most  or  all  incurred 
hardships,  losses,  perils,  persecutions,  and  sufferings 
of  the  severest  character,  in  attestation  of  their  belief 
in  the  Divine  mission  and  authority  of  Jesus  ;  that 
several  of  them,  as  itinerant  preachers,  devoted  them- 
selves for  the  residue  of  their  lives  to  the  promul- 
gation of  this  belief,  their  zeal  carrying  them  into 


236  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE.  ^ 

distant  lands,  and  enabling  them  to  overcome  natural, 
social,  and  national  barriers,  insurmountable  except 
to  the  most  ardent  and  self-forgetting  enthusiasm ; 
and  that  several  of  them,  in  the  same  cause,  encoun- 
tered and  bravely  endured  beheading,  crucifixion, 
and  other  agonizing  and  ignominious  forms  of  death. 
These  things  attest,  at  least,  the  sincerity  and  the 
intensity  of  their  belief.  Sacrifice  and  martyrdom 
always  prove  as  much  as  this.  But  they  do  not  prove 
the  truth  of  a  belief,  —  if  they  did,  there  would  be  no 
end  to  the  shams,  contradictions,  and  absurdities, 
which,  as  sealed  by  the  blood  of  their  believers,  we 
should  be  compelled  to  recognize  as  true. 

There  is,  however,  this  peculiarity  which  distin- 
guishes the  apostles  from  all  other  martyrs,  even 
from  other  early  Christian  martyrs.  The  declara- 
tions which  they  maintained  at  the  peril  and  cost  of 
their  lives  were  not  dogmatic  articles  of  faith,  but 
statements  of  alleged  facts,  of  which  they  professed 
to  have  been  eye  and  ear  witnesses.  Foremost 
among  these  facts  was  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  from 
the  dead.  That  they  believed  themselves  witnesses 
of  the  reality  of  his  death  and  of  his  reappearance 
among  the  living,  there  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt. 
This  Renan  admits.  He  maintains  that  Jesus  really 
died  ;  that  the  apostles  caught  eagerly  at  the  first 
rumor  of  his  resurrection,  which  grew  from  the  steal- 
ing of  his  body  (it  is  hard  to  say  by  whom,  but  more 
probably  by  Joseph  of  Arimathea  than  by  any  one 
else) ,  and  from  Mary  Magdalene's  mistaking  the  gar- 
dener for  him  in  the  dim  dawn  and  through  the  mist 


GENUINENESS  OF  THE   GOSPELS.  237 

of  her  tears  ;  that  they  so  firmly  believed  this  story 
as  to  imagine  that  they  saw  him  repeatedly,  by  day 
as  well  as  by  night,  at  Jerusalem  and  in  Galilee,  the 
whole  eleven  of  them  at  a  time  ;  and  that  this  hallu- 
cination lasted  many  days,  and,  on  one  occasion, 
extended  to  the  more  than  five  hundred  brethren 
mentioned  by  St.  Paul.  He  says  emphatically  that 
had  the  apostles  possessed  less  than  the  strongest 
assurance  of  their  Master's  resurrection,  they  could 
not  by  any  possibility  have  been  the  earnest  propa- 
gandists and  heroic  sufferers  that  they  undoubtedly 
were.  We  thank  him  for  this  admission  ;  and  indeed 
no  champion  of  the  Christian  faith  can  ask  for  a 
firmer  basis  for  his  superstructure  of  argument  and 
evidence  than  the  concessions  made  all  along  by  this 
pre-eminently  fair  and  frank,  yet  for  all  this  only  the 
more  captivating  and  dangerous,  Corypheus  of  the 
anti-Christian  host. 

But  the  undoubting  belief  of  professed  eye  and 
ear  witnesses  is  not  in  itself  sufficient  to  inspire  con- 
fidence in  their  story.  If  these  men  were  fools  or 
fanatics,  their  testimony,  though  blood-sealed,  is  of 
no  value.  The  question  for  us  then  is,  whether  they 
were  persons  of  sufficiently  acute  perceptions,  clear 
mind,  and  sound  judgment,  to  be  relied  on. 

To  answer  this  question,  let  us  look  first  at  their 
writings.  Five  of  them,  Matthew,  John,  James, 
Peter,  and  Jude,  are  among  the  reputed  authors  of 
the  New  Testament.  As  to  these  writers,  we  have 
as  good  reason  for  believing  in  the  genuineness  of 
Matthew's  and  John's  Gospels,  of  John's  First  Epis- 


238  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

tie,  and  of  Peter's  First  Epistle,  as  we  have  for 
believing  in  the  genuineness  of  Virgil's  Georgics, 
or  of  Cicero  de  Officiis.  We  find  them,  from  the  ear- 
liest mention  made  of  them,  named  and  quoted  as 
written  by  their  now  reputed  authors,  without  any 
record  or  intimation  of  a  doubt  or  question  as  to  their 
authorship. 

I  am  aware,  indeed,  that  rationalistic  criticism  does 
not  admit  that  the  Gospels  came  into  being  as  other 
books  do.  The  development  theory  is  applied  to 
them,  as  to  the  whole  realm  of  living  nature.  Their 
genesis  is  like  Topsy's,  in  Mrs.  Stowe's  tale,  —  "I 
'spect  I  grow'd,  don't  think  nobody  never  made  me." 
But  Renan  admits  that  memoranda  of  our  Saviour's 
discourses  written  out  by  Matthew  were  the  nucleus 
of  the  Gospel  which  bears  his  name.  He  thinks,  too, 
that  the  narrative  portions  of  John's  Gospel,  which  he 
regards  as  singularly  truthlike  and  accurate,  were 
derived  from  that  apostle,  and  that  the  whole  book 
was  written  by  his  immediate  disciples. 

Here  let  me  offer  some  considerations  with  special 
reference  to  the  authorship  of  the  fourth  Gospel. 
As  I  have  said,  the  testimony  of  antiquity  that  it 
was  written  by  John  is  unanimous  and  full.  As  to 
his  having  written  the  Apocalypse,  that  testimony  is 
less  clear  and  conclusive.  Yet  the  critics  of  the 
Tubingen  school  maintain  that  this  last  book  was 
undoubtedly  written  by  the  Apostle  John.  But  it  is 
very  certain  that  the  same  man  wrote  the  Gospel  of 
John  (so-called),  the  first  Epistle  bearing  his  name, 
and  the  Apocalypse  ;  for  there  are  several  very  strik- 


GENUINENESS  OF  THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL.      239 

ing  characteristic  conceptions  and  figures,  which  are 
both  pecuHar  and  common  to  these  three  writings,  or 
to  the  Gospel  and  the  Apocalypse.  For  instance,  the 
term  Logos  (the  Word)  is  applied  to  Jesus  in  all 
three  of  them,  and  nowhere  else  ;  and  again,  Jesus  is 
introduced  in  the  Gospel  under  the  figure  of  a  lamb ; 
the  same  figure  reappears  in  the  Apocalypse,  in 
almost  every  vision  of  the  glorified  Redeemer,  and 
he  is  called  by  this  name  nowhere  else.  These  are 
but  two  instances,  to  which  several  others  might  be 
added,  of  peculiarities  common  to  the  Gospel  and  the 
Apocalypse,  and  rendering  it  Very  certain  that,  if  the 
Tubingen  critics  do  not  err  in  ascribing  the  latter  to 
John,  he  must  have  written  the  former. 

Yet  another  consideration  strikes  me  very  forcibly 
in  favor  of  the  authorship  of  the  fourth  Gospel  by 
John.  True  or  false,  this  is  the  most  remarkable 
book  ever  written,  and  has  had  more  power  over  the 
human  mind  and  heart  than  any  other,  both  in 
determining  belief,  and  in  awakening  tender,  pro- 
found, and  fervent  devotion.  The  sublimest  narrative 
ever  written  is  that  of  the  raising  of  Lazarus.  The 
words  put  into  the  mouth  of  Jesus  in  that  scene,  "  I 
am  the  resurrection  and  the  life  ;  he  that  believeth  in 
me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live,  and  who- 
soever liveth,  and  believeth  in  me,  shall  never  die," 
are  the  grandest  utterance  ever  heard  on  earth,  and 
must  and  will  be  rehearsed  in  hope  and  triumph,  by 
the  grave-side,  till  the  last  of  the  dying  shall  have 
put  on  immortality.  The  recorded  communings  and 
intercessions  of  the  night  of  the  betrayal  surpass  in 


240  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE, 

every  element  of  pathos  all  human  literature  beside, 
and  there  are  at  this  and  at  every  moment,  all  the 
world  over,  thousands  upon  thousands  of  the  weary 
and  grief-stricken,  who,  oft  as  they  read  these  blessed 
words,  feel  pillowed  on  the  bosom  of  Infinite  Love. 

Now,  there  are  but  two  hypotheses  possible.  One 
is,  that  we  have  the  faithful  narrative  of  what  was 
said  and  done  by  the  Truth  and  Life  incarnate,  trans- 
mitted to  us  by  the  hand  of  one  who  saw  and  heard 
what  he  wrote.  If  this  be  so,  while  it  makes  no 
manner  of  difference  which  of  the  apostles  wrote  the 
book,  no  one  would  venture  to  doubt  its  having  been 
written  by  John.  The  other  supposition  is,  that  the 
author  of  this  Gospel,  by  his  own  genius,  without  a 
copy,  shaped  and  filled  out  in  those  transcendently 
glorious  and  beautiful  proportions  and  tints  the  figure 
of  Jesus  Christ,  and  from  his  own  fertile  brain,  spun 
those  discourses  into  whose  depth  none  can  enter 
without  seeming  to  listen  to  the  very  voice  of  God. 
If  this  be  true,  then  the  author  of  that  book  deserves 
the  place  in  human  gratitude,  reverence,  nay,  adora- 
tion, which  the  Christian  Church  has  assigned  to 
Jesus.  He  towers  up  above  all  other  writers,  all 
other  men  of  his  age ;  nay,  more,  as  the  greatest 
mind,  the  greatest  soul  of  his  race.  The  book  is, 
indeed,  superhuman,  if  he  whom  it  portrays  was  not 
so.  How  then  could  the  name  of  such  a  writer  have 
been  lost,  and  his  fame  transferred  to  another }  It 
was  a  name  too  great  to  perish,  a  fame  too  exalted 
not  to  have  its  enduring  record.  We  are  then  com- 
pelled to  accept  as  our  only  alternative,  our  first  sup- 


THE  APOSTLES  CREDIBLE    WRITERS.       24I 

position,  —  the  belief  resting  on  unbroken  tradition 
from  the  earliest  times,  that  this  book,  great  and 
glorious  as  it  is,  was  written  by  an  illiterate  Galilean 
fisherman,  and  that  it  owes  its  superiority  to  all  other 
books,  not  to  any  surpassing  ability  of  the  author, 
but  to  the  Divine  life  in  human  form,  as  to  which 
he  only  related  what  had  been  uttered  in  his  presence, 
or  done  under  his  personal  knowledge. 

As  for  the  Epistle  bearing  the  name  of  James,  we 
have  evidence  that  it  was  generally  received  as  gen- 
uine, and  was  from  a  very  early  period  read  in  the 
churches.  As  of  the  two  apostles  bearing  that  name, 
the  brother  of  John  died  early,  this  letter  must  be 
ascribed  to  James,  the  son  of  Alphaeus.  We  have 
about  the  same  kind  and  nearly  the  same  degree  of 
evidence,  for  the  genuineness  of  the  epistle  called 
that  of  Jude,  or  Judas,  —  evidence  which  would  be 
deemed  amply  sufficient  for  any  book  outside  of  the 
sacred  canon.  The  epistles  of  James  and  Jude  have 
also  characteristics  of  style  and  sentiment  which  ally 
them  to  the  undoubtedly  genuine  epistles  of  John 
and  Peter,  and  show  that  they  belong  to  the  earliest 
time  and  the  apostolic  school,  and  not  to  the  next 
succeeding  Christian  age,  whose  few  extant  writings 
are  of  quite  a  different  type. 

We  have  then,  undoubtedly,  in  our  hands  the 
writings  of  some  of  those  men,  who,  at  the  risk  of 
every  thing  earthly,  professed  to  have  been  eye-wit- 
nesses of  what  Jesus  said  and  did.  Kow  do  they 
write.?  Like  intelligent,  sober,  credible  men?  Or 
do  they  in  their  writings  show  themselves  so  stupid 

n 


242  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

and  foolish,  or  so  wild  and  fanatical,  that  they  could 
easily  have  been  the  dupes  of  pretension  or  impost- 
ure? This  question  would  seem  to  be  answered  by 
the  regard  which  has  been  paid  to  their  writings  in 
every  subsequent  age  by  the  foremost  men  in  point 
of  intelligence,  good  sense,  and  culture.  These 
writers  have  generally  been  supposed,  in  Christen- 
dom, to  have  been  specially  enlightened  and  inspired 
by  God.  Whether  this  be  so  or  not,  it  is  aside  from 
our  present  purpose  to  inquire  ;  but  the  fact  that  such 
an  opinion  concerning  them  has  been  held  by  a  large 
proportion  of  the  first  minds  of  our  race  is  a  suffi- 
cient proof  that  their  writings  are  at  least  free  from 
the  tokens  of  weakness,  folly,  or  infatuation. 

This  view  of  their  character  is  certainly  confirmed 
on  examination.  The  books  present  all  the  marks 
of  truth,  when  tried  by  the  usual  tests.  The  Gospels 
of  Matthew  and  John  contain  a  great  many  names, 
dates,  local  and  historical  references  ;  it  was  a  period 
of  very  frequent  change  in  the  political  relations  of 
Palestine,  —  a  period  as  to  which  later  writers  would 
inevitably  have  committed  gross  anachronisms  ;  yet 
we  find  in  these  books  only  the  closest  accordance, 
in  geography,  chronology,  and  history,  with  all  the 
authorities  of  the  time,  especially  with  the  minute 
and  circumstantial  history  of  Josephus.  Then,  too, 
we  have  between  the  Epistles  and  the  Gospels,  just 
the  kind  of  coincidences  which  we  should  expect  to 
trace  in  genuine  works.  Thus  we  find  in  the  Epistles 
not  any  formal  statement  of  facts,  or  set  rehearsal 
of  the  words  of  Jesus  ;  but  we  detect  in  them  unmis- 


THE  EPISTLE  OF  JAMES.  243 

takalDle  tokens  of  firm  belief  in  the  contents  of  the 
Gospels,  and  what  is  more,  of  precisely  the  condition 
of  mind  and  character  which  these  contents  were 
adapted  to  produce.  The  coincidences  between  the 
Epistles  and  the  Gospels  are  closely  analogous  to 
those  which  we  should  expect  to  find  between  the 
domestic  or  friendly  letters  of  statesmen  or  generals 
concerned  in  either  war  of  our  independence  and 
authentic  histories  of  the  same  war. 

Then,  again,  there  are  no  books  in  the  world  that 
show  greater  serenity  and  clearness  of  mind  than 
these  manifest.  Their  style  is  simple,  artless,  free 
from  exaggeration,  hyperbole,  apostrophe,  declama- 
tion, ambitious  rhetoric,  outbursts  of  impetuous  feel- 
ing. Matthew  and  John,  in  describing  the  marvellous 
life  and  works  of  Jesus  Christ,  write  as  quietly  and 
dispassionately  as  if  they  were  narrating  ordinary 
events.  They  show  no  fear  that  they  shall  not  be 
believed.  They  use  no  forms  of  strong  asseveration. 
In  fine,  they  write  as  if  they  had  become  so  accus- 
tomed to  experiences  on  a  higher  plane  than  that  of 
common  humanity,  as  to  be  unconscious  of  their 
position,  —  just  as  natives  of  Switzerland  might  talk 
and  write  calmly  and  unexcitedly  about  glaciers,  and 
avalanches,  and  scenes  of  which  the  mere  thought 
thrills  us  with  profound  emotion. 

The  Epistle  of  James  is  a  very  remarkable  compo- 
sition. Had  it  come  down  to  us,  with  such  slight 
verbal  changes  as  might  have  been  necessary,  as  a 
treatise  of  Plutarch,  or  Epictetus,  or  Marcus  Anto- 
ninus, it  would  now  be  regarded  as  the  finest  ethical 


244  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

monument  of  antiquity,  and  would  hold  an  unrivalled 
place  as  a  school  and  college  classic.  For  common 
sense,  shrewd  observation  of  men  and  things,  deep 
insight,  and  practical  wisdom  of  the  highest  order,  it 
may  resign  all  vantage-ground  on  the  score  of  any 
sacred  associations,  and  still  retain  its  prestige  unim- 
paired ;  while  it  is  no  less  remarkable  for  the  sharp 
edge  and  keen  point  and  brilliant  sheen  of  many  of 
its  single  maxims  and  apophthegms. 

I  have  said  enough  about  these  writings  for  my 
present  argument,  —  enough  to  show  you  that  at 
least  those  of  the  apostles  whom  we  know  as  authors 
were  not  feeble,  silly,  credulous  men,  who  could  have 
been  easily  deceived  by  an  impostor,  or  drawn  by  a 
self-deluded  pretender  into  the  vortex  of  his  fanati- 
cism ;  but  that  they  were  clear-headed,  sober-minded, 
intelligent,  and  in  every  way  competent  witnesses  of 
the  events  which  some  of  them  record  as  from  their 
own  personal  knowledge,  and  the  others  recognize  as 
undoubted  facts. 

Let  us  now  take  note  of  the  professions  of  the 
apostles,  so  far  as  they  are  specified  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament. Six  of  them,  perhaps  more,  were  fishermen 
on  the  little  lake  of  Galilee,  —  not  sailors  in  any  large 
sense  of  the  word  (for  they  were  probably  never  out 
of  sight  of  land,  or  in  their  boats  for  more  than  a  day 
at  a  time),  so  that  there  was  nothing  in  their  simple, 
prosaic  life  to  nurture  the  imaginative  element,  or  to 
cherish  credulity  and  superstition,  but  much  that  was 
adapted  to  educate  their  perceptive  faculties,  their 


CHARACTER  OF  PETER,  245 

powers  of  observation,  and  their  plain,  practical  com- 
mon sense.  Hardy,  straightforward,  honest  men, 
jostled  and  jostling  on  the  rough  paths  of  daily  life, 
the  weaker  sinews  of  character  broken  down,  the 
hardier  developed  by  incessant  toil,  they  would  have 
been  firm  adherents  to  one  who  could  give  them 
unmistakable  credentials  of  his  claims,  but  not  such 
persons  as  could  be  enlisted  in  the  cause  of  a  fanatic, 
or  become  the  easy  dupes  of  a  plausible  deceiver. 
We  have  in  the  first  chapter  of  John's  Gospel,  in  a 
series  of  conversations  whose  life-likeness  Renan  (in 
an  Appendix  to  his  last  edition)  adduces  as  a  token 
of  their  authenticity,  a  very  vivid  picture  of  what  these 
men  were  before  they  became  the  disciples  of  Jesus  ; 
and  the  picture  is  that  of  self-respecting,  intelligent, 
thoughtful  men,  —  such  men  as  the  Hebrew  theology 
and  the  institutions  of  Moses  were  adapted  to  pro- 
duce among  the  laboring  classes,  but  such  as  were 
developed  under  nd  other  type  of  ancient  civilization, 
nor  have  yet  been  formed,  except  in  comparatively 
small  numbers,  under  the  half-Pagan  auspices  of  what 
I  fear  we  miscall  Christian  civilization. 

Of  these  fishermen,  one  indeed,  Peter,  appears  to 
have  been  ardent  and  impulsive  in  his  nature.  But 
it  is  equally  manifest  that  he  was  testy,  petulant, 
captious,  easily  offended,  and  ready  sometimes  even 
to  find  fault  with  his  Master.  Such  a  man  as  he 
would  have  been  disgusted  with  sham  and  pretension. 
Had  there  been  aught  in  the  works,  words,  or  daily 
life  of  Jesus  that  was  not  genuine,  honest,  pure,  noble, 
he  was  the  very  man  to  take  umbrage  at  it,  and  to 


246  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

transmute  his  allegiance  into  implacable  enmity. 
But  his  attachment  flickers  only  for  a  few  moments 
under  the  natural  reaction  from  a  foolhardy  courage ; 
a  single  look  from  his  Master  drowns  his  denial  in  a 
passion  of  tears  ;  and  thenceforward  none  is  more 
prompt  and  earnest  than  he  to  bear  testimony,  at 
whatever  cost  and  risk,  to  the  power  and  love  of  God 
as  incarnate  in  Jesus  Christ. 

Another  of  the  twelve,  Matthew,  was  a  tax-gatherer 
in  the  service  of  the  Roman  government,  probably  a 
collector  of  the  imposts  on  the  brisk  though  petty 
inland  traffic  on  the  Lake  of  Galilee,  —  gathering 
tribute  from  a  people  that  scorned  to  pay  it,  and 
sought  every  possible  subterfuge  to  evade  it.  His 
office  could  have  been  borne  only  by  one  who  was  all 
eye  and  ear.  He  was  a  detective  by  the  necessity  of 
his  profession,  — the  last  man  to  be  duped  either  by 
fanaticism  or  by  imposture.  He,  too,  had  more  to  lose 
than  the  fishermen.  The  hands  of  all  the  fiscal  agents 
of  Rome,  great  and  small,  had  viscous  palms  ;  and  we 
have  intimation  of  his  substantial  worldly  estate  in  his 
making  a  great  feast  for  the  Saviour,  —  an  occasion 
important  enough  for  the  Pharisees  to  know  who  the 
guests  were,  and  to  carp  at  them  as  below  the  stand- 
ard of  Jewish  gentility  and  purism.  His  testimony, 
then,  has  a  peculiar  value,  both  on  the  ground  of  his 
profession,  and  on  account  of  the  heavy  sacrifice 
which  his  discipleship  made  inevitably  necessary. 
As  for  his  Gospel,  its  entire  character  accords  closely 
with  what  we  know  of  him.  There  is  something 
journal-like  in  its  narrative  portions,  as  if  it  were 


SIMON  ZELOTES.  247 

written  by  a  man  of  business.  It  contains  more 
about  the  Saviour's  sayings  and  doings  at  Caper- 
naum—  Matthew's  post  of  duty — than  either  of  the 
other  Gospels.  Moreover,  when  he  speaks  of  his 
own  house,  he  calls  it  the  house,  as  a  man  generally 
does  when  he  has  a  place  of  business  separate  from 
his  home.  The  uniform  tradition  of  the  early  Church 
represents  his  sacrifice  for  the  cause  of  Christ  as  life- 
long, his  service  as  a  missionary  of  the  cross  having 
been  first,  for  fifteen  years,  in  Judaea,  and  afterward 
in  remote  regions  of  the  East,  and  perhaps  of  the 
South  ;  for  there  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  his 
Christian  enterprise  carried  him  as  far  as  Ethiopia. 

Another  of  -the  sacred  college  was  Simon,  the 
Canaanite,  as  he  is  called  by  Matthew  and  Mark, 
Zelotes  (or  the  Zealot),  as  Luke  styles  him,  —  the 
former  being  the  Syro-Chaldaic,  the  latter  the  Greek 
designation  of  a  sect  of  Jewish  fanatics,  who  pushed 
their  loyalty  to  the  Mosaic  ritual  and  economy  to 
absolute  frenzy,  regarded  the  Roman  power  with  the 
intensest  hatred,  deemed  murder  and  even  stealthy 
assassination  justifiable  in  defence  of  the  national 
integrity  and  faith,  and  were  the  foremost  agents  in 
producing  the  condition  of  things  which  led  to  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  and  the  exile  of  the  Hebrew 
people,  —  enormities  opposed  to  the  ordinary  and  else 
invariable  Roman  policy,  but  forced  upon  Titus  by 
the  unparalleled  obstinacy  of  these  very  ultraists  of 
whom  we  so  strangely  find  one  among  the  followers 
of  Jesus  Christ.     The  Zealots  were  literal  interpreters 


248  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

of  the  prophecies  that  seemed  to  promise  extended 
temporal  dominion  to  the  Messiah,  and  were  in  con- 
stant expectation  of  his  advent.  We  know  nothing 
very  definite  about  this  man's  subsequent  life  ;  but 
the  tradition  is,  that  he  was  an  indefatigable  propa- 
gandist of  the  new  faith,  and  that  he  finally  suffered 
death  on  the  cross. 

That  a  man  of  this  sort  should  have  been  among 
the  apostles  indicates,  as  it  seems  to  me,  the  reality 
of  the  coincidence,  claimed  by  the  Evangelists,  be- 
tween the  Messiah  of  the  prophets  and  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  This  man  was  one  of  those  who  were  all 
the  time  watching  the  Eastern  sky  for  the  dawn  of 
the  Messianic  day,  and  that  a  day,  as  they  imagined, 
of  vengeance  and  of  victory.  There  was  not  a  pro- 
phetic sign  with  which  he  was  not  familiar ;  but  only 
a  convergence  of  these  signs,  too  patent  and  too  full 
to  admit  of  doubt,  could  have  made  a  Zealot  acknowl- 
edge a  Messiah  in  every  feature  so  utterly  unlike  the 
mailed  and  harnessed  chieftain  of  his  day-dreams. 

This  is  a  point  which  seems  to  me  deserving  of 
more  than  a  passing  notice.  The  evangelists  relate 
numerous  circumstances  of  birthplace,  birth,  parent- 
age, condition,  and  experience,  in  which  prophecy 
concerning  the  Messiah  was  said  to  be  fulfilled  in 
Jesus.  Rationalistic  critics  represent  these  coinci- 
dences as  in  part  factitious,  and  in  part  fictitious. 
They  allege  that  Jesus  did  some  things,  in  order  to 
simulate  the  Messiah  of  the  prophets  ;  and  that,  as 
to  the  greater  number  of  those  particulars  in  which 
he  could  have  had  no  agency,  as  about  his  birth  in 


THE  SCEPTICISM  OF  THOMAS.  249 

Bethlehem  and  his  descent  from  David,  the  evangehsts 
coined  facts  in  accordance  With  predictions.  It  might 
seem  sufficient  to  say  that,  as  the  coiners  of  these 
coincidences  risked  their  lives  by  coining  them,  they 
must,  before  undertaking  thus  to  deceive  the  world, 
have  accomplished  the  more  difficult  task  of  deceiv- 
ing themselves.  But  here  we  have  a  specially  strong 
case.  A  man  pledged  at  once  to  the  most  literal 
interpretation  of  prophecy  and  to  a  line  of  conduct 
utterly  opposed  to  the  spirit  and  character  of  Jesus 
is  so  impressed  with  the  Messianic  tokens  that  meet 
in  Jesus,  as  to  throw  aside  his  old  sectarian  convic- 
tions, to  renounce  his  former  self,  to  become  a  new 
man,  and  to  adhere  in  life  and  death  to  a  Teacher 
and  Leader  with  whom  at  the  outset  he  could  have 
had  nothing  in  common  except  reverence  for  the  Word 
of  God  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 

We  come  next  to  the  case  of  Thomas.  He  was 
evidently  sceptical  by  nature,  —  I  would  even  say,  by 
the  grace  and  gift  of  God,  who  evidently  made  use 
of  this  trait  in  his  mental  character  for  the  strength- 
ening of  his  own  faith,  and  of  that  of  multitudes  who 
should  come  after  him.  The  other  ten  have  seen  the 
risen  Lord,  and  have  no  doubt  of  his  identity.  He 
very  naturally  thinks  it  more  probable  that  they  have 
been  deceived  by  some  family  likeness  or  casual  re- 
semblance in  another  person  than  that  the  Crucified 
is  really  alive.  He  demands  to  examine  the  wound- 
marks,  to  trace  the  prints  of  the  nails,  the  incision 
made  by  the  spear.     He  was  in  the  right.     His  was 

II* 


250  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

an  honest  and  reasonable  doubt,  and  we  are  thankful 
for  it.  His  name  should  never  be  spoken  with  less 
than  the  highest  honor,  and  had  he  been  the  type  of 
a  larger  proportion  of  those  ministers  of  religion  who 
have  been  successors  of  the  apostles,  there  would  be 
much  less  of  infidelity  than  there  now  is.  Credulity 
generates  unbelief ;  and  infidelity  has  no  weapons  of 
its  own  forging  that  have  half  the  efficacy  of  those 
which  it  picks  up  among  the  crazy  outworks,  built  by 
a  faith  both  blind  and  timid,  around  the  impregnable 
citadel  of  everlasting  truth. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  scepticism,  —  that  of  the 
heart  and  that  of  the  intellect.  The  former  is  adapted 
to  make  unbelievers  ;  the  latter,  to  make  Christians. 
The  former  will  not  look  at  the  hands  and  the  side, 
because  it  is  determined  not  to  be  moved  morally  and 
spiritually  as  they  would  move  the  honest  soul ;  the 
latter  insists  on  seeing  the  wound-marks,  because  it 
wants  to  know  the  precise  truth,  and  therefore  avails 
itself  of  whatever  evidence  God  has  given.  The 
scepticism  of  the  heart  hates  the  light,  and  will  not 
come  to  the  light,  lest  its  deeds  be  reproved.  The 
scepticism  of  the  mind  is  that  which  cannot  believe 
without  sufficient  evidence.  It  proves  all  things,  and 
holds  fast  that  which  will  stand  the  test.  It  examines 
both  sides  of  a  question,  and  adheres  to  that  which 
imposes  the  least  strain  on  its  belief.  Such  a  mind 
needs  only  to  have  the  evidences  of  Christianity  fairly 
presented,  to  yield  to  it  entire  and  cordial  faith.  Many 
of  the  -firmest  believers,  many  of  the  ablest  defenders 
of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus,  belong  to  this  class  of 


HONEST  SCEPTICISM.  25 1 

minds.  In  this  sense,  Lardner,  Paley,  and  Butler, 
whose  contributions  to  the  Christian  evidences  are 
invaluable,  and  will  be  so  for  generations  to  come, 
were  pre-eminently  sceptics.  They  would  not  believe, 
without  examining  the  hands  and  the  side,  trying  all 
the  witnesses,  testing  the  objections  against  Chris- 
tianity with  the  opposing  arguments,  weighing  coolly 
and  impartially  the  evidence,  real  or  pretended,  on 
either  side ;  and  the  result  was  a  faith  in  Christ, 
which  sight  could  hardly  have  rendered  clearer  or 
stronger. 

God  has  made  many  such  minds,  and  they  are 
among  the  noblest  and  best  of  his  creation.  I  have 
known,  you  probably  have,  some  extreme  specimens 
of  this  kind  among  the  most  loyal  and  exemplary 
Christians.  Take  a  case  like  this,  —  I  paint  from 
life,  an  individual  as  the  type  of  a  class.  He  whom 
I  describe  wants  for  every  item  of  his  belief  a  solid 
basis  of  fact,  and  a  superstructure  of  unanswerable 
reasoning  built  upon  it ;  and  he  will  let  his  faith 
reach  no  higher  than  he  can  lay  this  superstructure, 
as  it  were,  stone  upon  stone  in  insoluble  cement. 
He  has  no  relish  (and  I  think  him  wrong  there) 
for  those  speculations  about  spiritual  and  heavenly 
things,  in  which,  from  a  mere  hint  of  holy  writ,  fancy 
takes  her  flight  in  those  higher  regions  of  thought, 
which,  I  believe,  God  has  purposely  left  undescribed, 
that  we  may  have  our  free  range  in  them.  In  the 
house  built  on  Christ  as  the  foundation,  he  prefers  to 
live  in  the  lower  story,  where  he  can  test  the  strength 
of  the  floor  and  the  walls.     But  so  firmly  has  he  by 


[TJHIVBHSITT] 


252  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

careful  examination  convinced  himself  of  the  Saviour  s 
redeeming  mission,  sacrificial  death,  miracles,  resur- 
rection and  ascension,  that  he  speaks  of  them  as  he 
would  of  sunrise,  or  the  phases  of  the  moon,  or  any 
of  the  well-known  phenomena  of  the  outward  world, 
as  matters  long  since  placed  by  him  beyond  question. 
He  conforms  his  life  to  these  great  spiritual  facts,  as 
he  does  to  the  laws  of  nature.  And  when  he  comes 
to  die,  he  passes  away,  not  with  any  glow  of  ecstasy, 
but  with  the  quiet  confidence  of  one  who  knows  just 
where  he  is  going,  and  has  just  as  firm  a  belief  in 
the  many  mansions  in  the  Father's  house  as  in  the 
several  apartments  in  his  own  house.  This  is  the 
style  of  faith  that  grows  from  the  honest  scepticism 
which  insists  on  always  having  sufficient  reasons  for 
its  belief.  It  often  has  less  unction  than  might  seem 
edifying  ;  but  if  you  want  valiant  soldiers  of  the  cross 
for  times  when  unbelief  is  rampant,  boastful,  and 
aggressive,  these  are  the  men  to  bear  the  shock  of 
arms,  and  come  off  more  than  conquerors. 

We  care  not,  then,  how  many  there  are  of  the 
same  order  of  mind  with  Thomas.  The  condition  of 
the  Christian  evidences  is  specially  adapted  to  their 
natures.  The  infidel  has  much  harder  things  to 
believe  than  the  Christian,  severer  difficulties  to 
encounter,  contradictions,  inconsistencies  and  absurd- 
ities which  only  a  credulous  mind  could  entertain, 
—  from  which  a  natively  sceptical  intellect  is  inev- 
itably drawn  into  the  Christian  faith.  For,  if  Chris- 
tianity be  not  true,  we  have  to  believe  in  numerous 
well-known  effects  without  any  adequate  cause ;   in 


TESTIMONY  TO  CHRIST  S  PRIVA  TE  CHAR  A  CTER.    253 

extensive  conditions  of  mind  and  of  conviction  for 
which  there  was  no  basis  whatever ;  in  the  growing 
up  of  confessedly  the  most  perfect  system  of  moraUty 
the  world  has  ever  seen,  in  the  brain  of  an  illiterate 
Galilean  peasant,  in  a  degenerate  nation  and  a  corrupt 
age,  and  not  only  so,  but  in  the  brain  of  one  who  was 
either  weak  enough  to  imagine,  or  wicked  enough 
to  feign,  himself  possessed  of  supernatural  powers  ; 
in  the  simultaneous  illusion  of  the  senses  of  multi- 
tudes and  bodies  of  men  for  many  successive  days, 
when  it  was  the  interest  and  the  wish  of  those  very 
men  to  find  that  false  which  they  were  constrained 
to  recognize  as  true  ;  in  the  imposition  of  pretended 
or  imagined  miracles  upon  a  hostile  people,  so  suc- 
cessfully that  they  were  compelled  to  admit  their 
actual  occurrence,  and  (as  we  have  abundant  Jewish 
evidence)  imputed  them  to  the  aid  of  Beelzebub,  the 
imagined  prince  of  demons  ;  and  in  many  other  things 
equally  incredible  and  opposed  to  all  recognized  laws 
of  belief.  The  fact  is,  that  not  a  few  of  the  most 
noted  infidels  of  modern  times  have  been  equally 
noted  for  their  credulity ;  and  that  at  the  present 
moment  the  superstitions  hardly  less  gross  than  feti- 
chism,  which  are  connected  with  pseudo-spiritualism, 
are  most  rife  in  the  very  quarters  where  the  miracles 
and  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  are  thrown  aside  as 
unworthy  of  credence. 

One  word  more  about  the  eleven,  before  I  pass  to 
the  twelfth.  These  eleven,  it  must  be  remembered, 
were  not  only  witnesses  of  leading  events  in.  the  life 


254  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

of  Jesus,  but  were  for  many  months  his  constant 
companions,  on  the  road,  in  the  house,  on  the  lake. 
They  knew  his  whole  manner  of  life,  —  his  modes  of 
intercourse  with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men, — 
the  degree  to  which  he  embodied  his  precepts  of 
piety,  purity,  justice,  forbearance,  and  kindness  in 
his  daily  walk  and  conversation.  They  staked  their 
lives  on  a  body  of  statements,  prominent  among 
which  was  the  alleged  fact  of  his  faultless  and  abso- 
lutely godlike  sanctity  and  excellence.  They  must 
have  known  whether  this  was  true  or  not ;  and  that 
they  suffered  and  died  to  attest  it,  proves  that  they 
knew  it  to  be  true. 

I  have  spoken  of  eleven  only.  There  remains 
Judas,  by  far  the  most  important  of  all,  for  whom 
the  Church  has  been  slow  to  own  her  debt  of  ever- 
lasting gratitude  to  the  God  who  makes  the  wrath 
and  guilt  of  man  to  praise  him.  Judas  had  the  same 
opportunities  with  the  other  eleven  for  knowing 
every  thing  about  his  Master  that  could  be  known. 
He  was  employed  in  a  confidential  relation,  as  cus- 
todian of  the  scanty  funds  of  the  apostolic  family. 
He  was  probably  from  the  first  a  selfish,  greedy, 
deceitful  man  ;  our  Saviour  early  and  repeatedly  in- 
timates his  recognition  of  these  traits  ;  and  he  prob- 
ably chose  him  on  account  of  them,  that,  if  malice 
itself  could  find  aught  against  him,  it  might  have 
free  scope  and  full  swing. 

Judas  entered  into  negotiations  with  the  chief 
priests  and  their  associates  for  the  ruin  of  his  Mas- 


TESTIMONY  OF  JUDAS.  255 

ter,  and,  mercenary  as  he  was,  he  would  certainly 
have  effected  that  ruin  in  the  way  most  profitable  to 
himself.  Now  it  was  only  as  a  last  resort  that  the 
leading  Jews  wanted  to  get  possession  of  the  body 
of  Jesus.  They  felt  by  no  means  certain  that  they 
could  persuade  Pilate  to  kill  him,  and  they  dared  not 
kill  him  themselves.  They  would  have  immeasurably 
preferred  to  destroy  his  influence,  to  detect  some  im- 
posture in  his  alleged  miracles,  or  to  find  some  weak 
point  in  his  character,  some  damning  incident  in  his 
life.  They  were  so  doubtful  how  they  could  dispose 
of  their  prisoner,  that  they  offered  a  very  low  price 
for  him.  But  they  had  large  means  at  their  com- 
mand, and  would  have  given  a  much  greater  reward 
for  a  surer  service.  Could  Judas  have  gone  to  those 
men  with  evidence  of  jugglery,  pretence,  or  exagger- 
ation in  the  wonderful  works  reported  to  have  been 
wrought  by  Jesus,  or  could  he  have  proved  a  single 
deed  or  utterance  that  would  impair  the  reputation 
of  perfect  sanctity  which  Jesus  held  among  a  large 
portion  of  the  people ;  in  fine,  could  he  have  borne 
the  slightest  testimony  against  his  Master's  character, 
he  might  as  easily  as  not  have  made  his  thirty  pieces 
of  silver  three  thousand,  —  he  might  have  named  his 
own  price,  and  if  there  had  not  been  money  enough 
in  hand,  they  would  have  taken  up  contributions  in 
all  the  synagogues  to  pay  it.  But  there  was  abso- 
lutely nothing  secret  which  could  injure  Jesus  and 
his  cause  by  being  made  known.  There  was  nothing 
for  this  bad  man  to  betray  except  the  place  in  the 
environs  of  the  crowded  city  where  Jesus  was  going 


256  CHRISTIAcVITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

to  pass  the  night,  —  it  being  ^necessary  to  arrest  him 
by  night  on  account  of  the  large  number  of  friendly 
Galileans  who  would  have  resisted  any  attempt  to 
apprehend  him  by  daylight.  For  this  mean  and 
paltry  service  he  had  a  commensurately  pitiful  com- 
pensation. 

But  even  he  repents  of  what  he  has  done.  The 
power  and  beauty  of  that  blessed  spirit,  the  majesty, 
meekness,  and  love  of  that  holy  countenance  come 
over  him,  but  too  late  to  recall  his  deed.  He  seeks, 
as  so  many  do  in  all  times,  in  our  time,  to  escape 
the  contamination  of  ill-gotten  gain  by  casting  it  into 
the  temple  treasury  ;  and  finding  no  relief,  in  an  agony 
of  remorse  and  despair  he  goes  and  hangs  himself, 
bearing  as  unequivocal  and  precious  testimony  to  the 
truth  and  purity  of  his  Master  in  that  horrible  suicide, 
as  the  other  apostles  bore  in  their  cheerful  suffer- 
ings and  martyrdom  for  the  love  of  their  ascended 
Lord. 

Judas  has  been  strangely  overlooked  by  the  Church  ; 
no  day  is  assigned  to  him  in  the  calendar  ;  no  account 
is  taken  of  his  services  ;  —  yet  we  could  have  better 
spared  a  better  man.  We  thank  God  for  the  life- 
record  of  those  of  the  sacred  college  who  followed 
closest  in  the  footsteps  of  their  Lord  ;  yet  while  we 
have  the  Master,  we  might  not  have  missed  even 
James,  or  Peter,  or  Nathaniel.  But  we  do  need 
Judas,  to  learn  what  aspect  the  Saviour  manifested 
to  a  subtle,  captious,  and  treacherous  witness,  and 
thus  to  have  the  testimony  of  the  vilest  avarice, 
meanness,  and   malice,  alongside  with  that  of   God 


THE   CHRISTIAN  CALLING.  257 

and  the  holy  angels,  to  the  truth  of  his  claims,  the 
guilelessness  of  his  spirit,  the  purity  of  his  life. 

I  have  thus  presented  the  evidences  of  our  Saviour's 
Divine  mission  and  character  afforded  us  by  those  of 
whom  the  Evangelist  writes,  "  He  ordained  twelve, 
that  they  should  be  with  him."  In  transmitting  to 
us  their  testimony,  he  has  ordained  us  also,  that  we 
should  be  with  him.  This  is  the  place  to  which  Jesus 
calls  us  and  heaven  invites  us.  Be  it  our  place  ;  and 
may  it  be  our  blessedness  so  to  confess  him  in  our 
earthly  lives  and  before  men,  that  we  may  be  owned 
of  him  in  heaven,  before  the  angels  of  God. 


II. 
NOTES. 


Note  A.  —  Page  22. 

"  [Herod's]  wife  having  discovered  the  agreement  he  had 
made  with  Herodias,  and  having  learned  it  before  he 
had  notice  of  her  knowledge  of  the  whole  design,  she 
desired  him  to  send  her  to  Macherus,  which  was  subject 
to  her  father,  and  so  all  things  necessary  to  her  journey 
were  made  ready  for  her  by  the  general  of  Aretas's  army ; 
and  by  that  means  she  soon  came  into  Arabia,  under  the 
conduct  of  several  generals,  who  carried  her  from  one  to 
another  till  she  reached  her  father,  and  told  him  of  Herod's 
intentions.  Aretas  made  this  the  occasion  of  hostilit}' 
against  Herod,  who  had  also  some  quarrel  with  him  about 
their  limits  in  the  territory  of  Gamalitis.  So  they  raised 
armies  on  both  sides,  prepared  for  war,  and  sent  their 
generals  to  fight  instead  of  themselves ;  and  when  they 
had  joined  battle,  all  Herod's  army  was  destroyed  by  the 
treachery  of  certain  fugitives,  who,  though  they  were  of  the 
tetrarchy  of  Philip,  had  joined  Herod's  army."  — Josephus, 
Jewish  Antiquities  J  xviii.  5.  i. 

Note  B.  —  Page  32. 

Several  of  Justin's  alleged  additions  to  the  narrative  of 
the  canonical  Gospels  were  probably  only  his  own  amplifi- 


y  us  TIN'S  ACCOUNT  OF  CHRIST.  259 

cation  or  exposition  of  that  narrative.  Thus,  when  he 
quotes  the  Jews  as  saying  of  the  miracles  of  Christ  "  that 
they  were  a  magical  delusion,"  he  but  expresses  in  different 
words  the  charge,  "  He  is  casting  out  demons  by  Beelzebub, 
the  prince  of  demons."  Thus  also,  when  he  says,  that 
"  Christ,  being  regarded  as  a  worker  in  wood,  made,  while 
among  men,  ploughs  and  yokes,"  he  is  simply  drawing  a 
natural  inference  from  Christ's  being  called  a  carpenter  in 
Mark's  Gospel. 

In  describing  the  birth  of  Christ,  he  says,  that  "as 
Joseph  could  find  no  room  in  any  inn  at  Bethlehem,  he 
lodged  in  a  cave  near  the  village,  and  while  they  were 
there,  Mary  brought  forth  the  Messiah,  and  laid  him  in  a 
stall."  This  is  not  by  any  means  inconsistent  with  the 
narrative  of  St.  Luke,  nor  with  probability.  The  (so- 
called)  Cave  of  the  Nativity  was  shown  at  a  very  early 
period,  and  the  frequent  use  of  caves  as  stables  in  the  East 
is  attested  by  modern  travellers,  as  well  as  by  several  pas- 
sages that  might  be  cited  from  ancient  writers.  Such 
knowledge  of  the  local  fact  or  tradition  concerning  the 
cave  needs  no  written  authority  to  account  for  it,  as  Justin 
was  not  a  stranger  in  Palestine. 

In  his  account  of  the  baptism  of  Jesus,  Justin  varies 
from  the  Gospels,  as  we  read  them,  in  two  particulars. 
One  is  the  statement  that  "  when  Jesus  came  to  the  river 
Jordan  where  John  was  baptizing,  upon  his  entering  the 
water,  a  fire  was  kindled  in  the  Jordan."  This  must  have 
been  a  very  early  tradition ;  for,  though  there  is  no  reason 
to  believe  that  it  was  put  on  record  by  the  author  of  the 
first  Gospel,  it  is  found  in  the  oldest  extant  manuscript 
of  the  earliest  Latin  version  of  that  Gospel  (Matt.  iii. 
15),  and  in  one  or  more  other  old  Latin  manuscripts, 
having  been,  no  doubt,  first  written  in  the  margin  of  some 


26o  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Greek  copy,  and  rendered  by  the  translator  as  a  part  of 
the  text.  It  is,  however,  manifest  that  Justin  derived  it 
from  unwritten  tradition ;  for  he  adds :  "  The  apostles 
of  this  same  person,  our  Messiah,  have  written  that  when 
he  came  out  of  the  water,  the  Holy  Spirit,  like  a  dove, 
alighted  upon  him."  The  other  deviation  from  the  narra- 
tive of  the  Gospels  concerns  the  voice  from  heaven  at  the 
baptism,  which  Justin  twice  quotes  as  having  uttered  the 
words,  "  Thou  art  my  Son,  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee." 
These  words  may  have  been  in  Justin's  copy  of  St.  Luke's 
Gospel ;  for  they  are  found  (Luke  iii.  22)  in  the  Cam- 
bridge Manuscript  of  the  Greek  text,  —  one  of  the  oldest 
authorities,  —  and  (translated)  in  several  of  the  earliest 
Latin  manuscripts  extant. 

Justin,  while  he  quotes  very  largely  from  our  Saviour's 
own  words,  quotes  as  his  but  one  saying,  not  found  in  the 
Gospels,  namely,  "  In  whatever  actions  I  apprehend  you, 
by  those  will  I  judge  you."  This  may  have  originated 
from  a  lapse  of  memory  in  quoting  some  one  of  the  not 
unlike  recorded  sayings  of  Jesus,  or  it  may  have  been  one 
of  the  many  utterances  which  were  repeated  as  his  among 
his  disciples  without  being  recorded  by  his  biographers. 

It  is  certain  that  Justin  had  in  his  hands  the  fourth  and 
latest  Gospel  ;  for  he  quotes  as  a  saying  of  Christ,  "  Unless 
ye  be  born  again,  ye  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,"  —  a  text  in  which  the  common  editions  of  the 
New  Testament  read  "  the  kingdom  of  God,"  but  which  in 
the  Sinaitic  manuscript  —  the  oldest  and  highest  author- 
ity —  (and  according  to  several  other  early  authorities),  is 
written  "  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  (See  Norton's  "  Evi- 
dences of  the  Genuineness  of  the  Gospels,"  Part  I.  chap,  ii., 
and  Tischendorff's  "  Origin  of  the  Four  Gospels.") 


EUSEBIUS  ON  F API  AS.  261 


Note  C.  —  Page  2iZ- 

Justin's  writings  afford  conclusive  proof  that  what  are 
commonly  called  the  "Apocryphal  Gospels,"  if  already 
written  in  his  time,  had  no  authority  among  intelligent 
Christians.  Had  he  possessed  them,  and  regarded  them 
as  authentic,  it  is  impossible  that,  with  his  full  and  minute 
citations  of  Christ's  words  and  deeds,  he  should  not  have 
quoted  from  them.  There  is,  indeed,  no  trace  of  their 
existence  during  the  first  three  centuries,  and  in  the  fourth 
century  they  are  expressly  referred  to  as  late  compositions, 
by  unknown  persons,  and  of  no  historical  value.  They 
are  not  in  a  single  instance  quoted  with  approval  within 
the  period  in  which  their  sanction  by  a  Christian  writer 
could  have  any  bearing  on  the  question  of  their  authen- 
ticity or  early  antiquity.  They  are,  however,  of  great 
worth,  as  showing  what  kinds  of  traditions  must  have 
found  ready  circulation  among  the  more  ignorant  Chris- 
tians, and  thus  by  their  contrast  with  our  canonical  Gos- 
pels enhancing  the  presumption  in  favor  of  the  latter  as 
authentic.  The  Apocryphal  Gospels  seem  to  have  been 
written  by  sincerely  devout  Christians,  of  large  credulity 
and  little  spiritual  discernment,  who  thought  to  do  honor 
to  Christ  by  ascribing  to  him  marvellous  acts  of  whatever 
kind,  frivolous,  useless,  or  mischievous,  equally  with  those 
worthy  of  "  a  Teacher  sent  from  God." 

Note  D.  —  Page  35. 

The  chapter  of  Eusebius  with  reference  to  Papias  is  so 
admirable  a  specimen  of  candid  and  cautious  criticism,  as 
to  deserve  to  be  quoted  in  part,  in  order  to  correct  the 


262  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

common  impression  that  the  early  Christian  writers  exer- 
cised no  discrimination  as  to  the  testimony  offered  them 
in  behalf  of  what  they  wanted  to  believe. 

"  There  are  said  to  be  five  Books  of  Papias,  which  bear 
the  title  '  Interpretation  of  our  Lord's  Declarations.'  Ire- 
naeus  makes  mention  of  them  as  the  only  works  written 
by  him,  in  the  following  terms :  '  These  things  are  attested 
by  Papias,  who  was  John's  hearer  and  the  associate  of 
Polycarp,  an  ancient  writer.  They  are  spoken  of  in  his 
fourth  Book,  for  he  has  written  a  work  in  five  Books.' 
But  Papias  himself,  in  the  preface  to  his  discourses,  by  no 
means  asserts  that  he  was  a  hearer  and  an  eye-witness  of 
the  holy  apostles,  but  informs  us  that  he  received  the  doc- 
trines of  faith  from  their  intimate  friends,  which  he  states 
as  follows :  '  I  shall  not  regret  to  subjoin  to  my  interpreta- 
tions, for  your  benefit,  whatever  I  have  at  any  time  accu- 
rately ascertained  and  treasured  up  in  my  memory,  as  I 
received  it  from  the  elders,  and  have  recorded  it  in  order 
to  give  additional  confirmation  to  the  truth  by  my, testi- 
mony. For  I  have  never,  like  many,  delighted  to  hear 
those  that  tell  many  things,  but  those  that  teach  the  truth ; 
neither  those  that  record  precepts  from  other  sources,  but 
those  who  report  precepts  that  are  given  by  the  Lord  for 
our  faith,  and  that  came  from  the  Truth  itself.  But  if  I 
met  with  any  one  who  had  been  a  follower  of  the  elders 
anywhere,  I  made  it  a  point  to  inquire  what  were  the 
declarations  of  the  elders  ;  what  was  said  by  Andrew, 
Peter,  or  Philip  ;  what  by  Thomas,  James,  John,  Mat- 
thew, or  any  other  of  the  disciples  [/>.,  apostles]  of  our 
Lord  ;  what  was  said  by  Aristion,  and  the  presbyter  John, 
disciples  of  the  Lord,  —  for  I  do  not  think  that  I  derived 
so  much  benefit  from  books  as  from  the  living  voice  of 
those  that  were  still  surviving.' 


TESTIMONY  OF  PAPIAS.  263 

"  Here  it  is  proper  to  observe  that  the  name  of  John  is 
twice  mentioned.  He  first  mentions  John  with  Peter, 
James,  and  Matthew,  and  the  other  apostles,  evidently- 
meaning  the  evangelist.  Again  he  ranks  the  other  John 
with  those  not  included  in  the  number  of  apostles,  placing 
Aristion  before  hifn.  This  man  he  distinguishes  plainly 
by  the  name  of  presbyter.  Thus  it  is  here  proved  that  the 
statement  of  those  is  true  who  assert  that  there  were  two 
of  the  same  name  in  Asia,  and  that  there  were  also  two 
tombs  at  Ephesus,  both  of  which  bear  the  name  of  John 
even  to  this  day,  —  which  it  is  particularly  necessary  to 
observe  ;  for  it  is  probable  that  the  second  John  —  if  it  be 
not  allowed  that  it  was  the  first  —  saw  the  Revelation 
(i.e.^  wrote  the  Apocalypse)  ascribed  to  John.  The  same 
Papias,  of  whom  we  now  speak,  professes  to  have  received 
the  declarations  of  the  apostles  from  those  that  were  in 
company  with  them,  and  says  also  that  he  was  a  hearer  of 
Aristion  and  the  presbyter  John  ;  for,  as  he  has  often  men- 
tioned them  by  name,  he  also  gives  their  statement  in  his 
books.  .  .  . 

"  He  also  gives  other  accounts  which  he  adds  as  re- 
ceived by  him  from  unwritten  tradition,  likewise  certain 
strange  parables  of  our  Lord,  and  statements  of  his  doc- 
trine, and  some  other  matters  rather  too  fabulous.  In  these 
he  says  that  there  will  be  a  certain  millennium  after  the 
resurrection,  and  that  there  will  be  a  corporeal  reign  of 
Christ  on  this  very  earth,  which  things  he  appears  to  have 
imagined  as  if  they  were  authorized  by  the  apostolic  nar- 
ratives, not  understanding  correctly  what  they  propounded 
obscurely  in  their  representations.  For  he  was  very  limited 
in  his  comprehension,  as  is  evident  from  his  discourses ; 
yet  he  was  the  cause  why  most  of  the  writers  of  the  Church, 
relying  on  his  having  lived  at  so  early  a  time,  were  carried 


264  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

away  by  a  similar  opinion  ;  as,  for  instance,  Irenaeus,  and 
others  that  adopted  such  sentiments.  .  .  . 

"We  shall  now  subjoin  to  the  extracts  already  given 
a  tradition  concerning  Mark,  who  wrote  the  Gospel,  in 
the  following  words :  '  John  the  presbyter  also  said  this : 
Mark  being  the  interpreter  of  Peter,  whatsoever  he 
recorded  he  wrote  with  great  accuracy,  but  not,  however, 
in  the  order  in  which  it  was  spoken  or  done  by  our  Lord ; 
for  he  neither  heard  nor  followed  our  Lord,  but,  as  before 
said,  he  was  the  companion  of  Peter,  who  gave  him  such 
instruction  as  was  necessary,  but  not  a  full  account  of  our 
Lord's  discourses.  Wherefore  Mark  has  not  erred  in  any 
thing,  by  writing  things  as  he  has  recorded  them ;  for  he 
was  careful  not  to  omit  anything  that  he  heard,  or  to  state 
anything  falsely.'  Such  is  the  account  of  Papias  respect- 
ing Mark.  Of  Matthew  he  has  stated  as  follows  :  *  Mat- 
thew wrote  his  history  in  the  Hebrew  dialect  (z>.,  the 
Syro-Chaldaic),  and  every  one  translated  it  as  he  was 
able.'"  —  EusEBius,  Ecclesiastical  History,  iii.  39. 

It  is  very  probable  that  Matthew's  Gospel  —  designed 
for  Jewish  readers  —  was  originally  written  in  the  then 
vernacular  language  of  Palestine,  and  that  Papias  had 
never  seen  a  translation  of  it ;  yet  there  is  strong  internal 
evidence  that  our  present  Greek  Gospel  of  Matthew  — 
if  a  translation  —  is  nearly  as  old  as  the  original;  while 
abundant  testimony,  both  direct  and  indirect,  points  to  it 
as  undoubtedly  the  oldest  book  in  the  canon  of  the  New 
Testament. 

Note  E.  —  Page  67. 

One  of  Justin's  works  is  a  Dialogue  with  Trypho,  a 
Jew,  —  an  imaginary  personage,  who,  however,  is  sup- 
posed to  maintain,  after  the  fashion  of  his  own  time,  the 


JEWISH  OBJECTIONS   TO   CHRISTIANITY.      265 

Jewish  side  in  the  controversy  with  Christianity.  In  this, 
though  the  Jewish  interlocutor  does  not  make  the  charge, 
his  opponent  refers  to  the  hypothesis  of  magic  as  the  com- 
mon Jewish  mode  of  accounting  for  the  miracles  of  Christ. 

The  Babylonian  Talmud  says  that  Jesus  was  condemned 
to  death  "because  he  dealt  in  sorceries,  and  persuaded 
and  seduced  Israel."  In  another  passage  it  is  said  that 
the  son  of  Stada  (by  which  name  Mary  is  called)  brought 
enchantments  from  Egypt  in  an  incision  in  his  flesh,  the 
native  magicians  being  on  their  guard  to  prevent  the  ex- 
portation of  magic  books.  His  miracles  are  also  ascribed 
to  magic  arts  learned  in  Egypt,  in  a  Jewish  work  of  the 
twelfth  century,  which  consists  in  great  part  of  a  running 
commentary  on  the  Gospel  history  from  the  Hebrew  point 
of  view ;  and  also  in  a  similar  work  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. 

In  a  Jewish  Life  of  Jesus,  extant  a  century  or  two 
earlier,  and  regarded  with  high  favor  by  the  mediaeval 
Jews,  it  is  mentioned  as  the  common  belief  that  Jesus, 
entering  the  temple  clandestinely,  stole  the  stone  on  which 
was  engraven  the  ineffable  name  of  God,  copied  the  name 
on  parchment,  and  concealed  the  parchment  in  a  hole  cut 
by  himself  in  his  own  flesh,  and  immediately  healed  by 
the  might  of  that  name.  The  author  of  the  Life  dissents 
from  this  theory,  saying  that  without  magic  and  incanta- 
tion he  could  not  have  obtained  entrance  to  the  holy  place 
where  the  sacred  name  was  kept,  whence  it  is  manifest 
that  all  that  he  did  was  performed  by  the  spell  of  an 
impure  name  and  by  magic  art.  (See  Wagenseil's  "  Tela 
Ignea  Satanae.") 


12 


266  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE, 

Note  F.  —  Page  72. 

John  vii.  53-viii.  11  is  wanting  in  the  four  oldest 
manuscripts  extant,  —  the  Sinaitic,  the  Alexandrine,  the 
Vatican,  and  the  Parisian  {Codex  Ephraemi)^  and  indeed 
in  all  the  manuscripts  of  an  earlier  date  than  the  eighth 
century,  except  the  Cambridge,  which,  though  in  some 
respects  of  high  authority,  shows  evident  tokens  of  a 
transcriber  who  understood  his  work  but  imperfectly.  It 
is  either  wanting,  or  inserted  in  the  margin,  in  all  manu- 
scripts of  the  earlier  versions  that  can  claim  high  antiquity 
or  authority.  No  reference  is  made  to  it  either  by  Origen 
or  by  Chrysostom,  both  of  whom  cover  by  their  quota- 
tions almost  the  entire  Gospels.  Ambrose  speaks  of  it  as 
undoubtedly  spurious.  In  many  of  the  manuscripts  in 
which  it  occurs,  when  not  inserted  in  the  margin,  it  is 
marked  with  an  asterisk  or  an  obelisk.  In  some  it  is 
found  at  the  end  of  the  Gospel,  and  in  some  bet\veen  chap- 
ters xxi.  and  xxii.  of  Luke's  Gospel,  which  it  resembles  in 
style  more  than  it  resembles  John's. 

There  is  in  this  short  passage  a  designation  of  a  place, 
and  there  is  also  a  mode  of  describing  certain  persons, 
neither  of  which  occurs  elsewhere  in  the  Gospel  of  John, 
while  it  frequently  makes  mention  of  that  place  and  of 
those  persons.  The  place  is  "the  Mount  of  Olives,"  — 
a  name  belonging  to  a  considerable  tract  of  country  in  the 
environs  of  Jerusalem,  which  is  often  used  by  the  synoptic 
evangelists.  John  never  uses  it,  but  instead  of  it  uses  the 
name  of  some  one  of  the  divisions  of  that  district,  as  Geth- 
semane,  Bethany.  The  persons  are  "  the  Scribes,"  who  — 
so  called  by  the  synoptics  —  are  nowhere  else  mentioned 
under  that  name  in  the  fourth  Gospel,  though  the  persons 
so  termed  are  often  mentioned  by  John  under  the  more 


JOHN  VIL  53-F7//.  ii.  267 

general  designation  of  "the  Jews,"  which  with  him  denotes 
the  captious  or  hostile  part  of  them.  He  wrote  his  Gospel 
at  Ephesus,  where  the  term  yQa^fiarEvg  {scribe)  bore  an 
entirely  different  meaning. 

The  context  of  this  passage  also  plainly  shows  that  it 
does  not  belong  where  it  is  found.  If  we  omit  it,  we  have 
a  connected  narrative  of  a  series  of  conversations  held  by 
our  Saviour,  on  the  same  day,  in  the  same  place,  with  the 
same  persons,  and  in  the  same  tone  on  his  part  and  on 
theirs.  If  we  insert  it,  we  have  to  suppose  that  those  who 
were  disputing  with  him  went  home,  that  he  spent  the  night 
somewhere  on  the  Mount  of  Olives,  that  the  guilty  woman 
was  brought  to  him  in  the  temple  on  the  following  morn 
ing,  that  her  conscience-stricken  accusers  left  him  alone 
with  her,  that  on  his  dismissing  her  a  company  identical 
with  that  of  the  preceding  day  gathered  about  him,  and 
that  he  and  they  resumed  the  discussion  suspended  on  the 
previous  day.  Moreover,  the  transition  from  the  suspected 
passage  to  the  next  sentence  is  abrupt  and  unnatural,  and 
supposes  a  series  of  intervening  incidents  of  which  we 
have  not  the  slightest  trace.  The  close  of  the  doubtful 
passage  leaves  Jesus  alone.  The  next  verse  begins, 
"Therefore  (wv,  E.  T.  then)  spake  Jesus  again  to  them." 
Wherefore  ?  to  whom  ?  why  "  again,"  if  not  with  refer- 
ence to  a  preceding  conversation  ?  The  sentence  thus 
beginning  obviously  has  no  connection  with  the  suspected 
passage ;  it  as  obviously  implies  a  connection  with  some- 
thing preceding ;  and,  unless  we  omit  this  passage,  it  is 
impossible  to  define  the  circumstances  that  led  to  the 
ensuing  conversation.  But  if  we  omit  this  passage,  vii. 
52  and  viii.  12  run  together  by  a  perfectly  natural  and  easy 
connection,  as  successive  sentences  in  a  continuous  nar- 
rative. 


268  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Note  G.  —  Page  102. 

"  It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  there  exists  in  the  Bible 
an  element  foreign  to  the  Aryan  races,  to  be  found  neither 
in  the  books  of  Zoroaster,  nor  in  Brahmanism,  nor  in  the 
Veda,  namely,  the  personality  of  God.  Although  the  prob- 
lem of  the  Divine  nature  does  not  present  itself  as  entirely 
solved  in  the  Vedic  hymns,  yet  many  of  them  tend  strongly 
to  pantheism.  A  little  later,  pantheism  was  established  in 
India  as  a  fundamental  theory,  together  with  Brahmanism, 
and  it  has  never  ceased  to  be  the  religious  doctrine  of  the 
Hindoos.  It  is  known  that  in  Persia  the  highest  divine 
person  is  Ormuzd,  who  was  the  Asura  of  the  primitive  age, 
and  in  the  celestial  hierarchy  of  Zoroaster  was  the  first  of 
the  Amschaspands  ;  but  above  this  personal  and  living 
God,  supreme  agent  of  the  creation  and  governor  of  the 
world,  the  magi,  as  well  as  the  brahmins,  conceived  of 
the  absolute  and  eternal  being,  in  whose  unity  all  living 
beings,  and  Ormuzd  himself,  are  merged.  There  is,  then, 
no  essential  difference  between  the  metaphysic  of  the 
Persians  and  that  of  the  Hindoos. 

"The  scholars  of  our  day  who  have  occupied  them- 
selves on  the  Semitic  races,  and  among  them  M.  Renan, 
who  is  an  authority  in  these  matters,  have  shown  that 
Semitism,  on  the  contrary,  rests  on  the  Divine  personality, 
and  in  this  respect  diverges  from  the  Aryan  dogmas.  We 
must  recognize  in  this  conception  of  God  an  element 
introduced  into  the  doctrine  of  God  by  that  race.  It  is 
recognized  in  the  Bible  from  its  very  first  words,  and  it 
served  as  a  support  for  the  entire  political  system  of  the 
people  of  Israel.  If  the  prophets  had  not  yielded  to  its 
influence,  and  had  preserved  in  its  integrity  the  doctrine 
of  the  Aryans,  it  is  probable  that  they  would  have  had 


ARYAN  AND  SEMITIC  THEOLOGY.  269 

only  a  very  limited  hold  on  the  Jewish  people,  the  Semitic 
majority  of  which  would  have  had  no  comprehension  of  a 
metaphysic  so  high.  The  cerebral  and  intellectual  devel- 
opment of  the  Semitic  race  is  arrested  before  the  age  at 
which  man  is  able  to  understand  these  transcendental 
speculations.  The  Aryan  alone  can  attain  to  them ;  the 
history  of  religions  and  that  of  philosophies  show  us  that 
he  alone  has  risen  high  enough.  What  the  young  Idumaean 
cannot  comprehend  he  will  not  teach  to  his  sons ;  the 
inaptness  of  the  race  will  be  perpetuated  by  natural 
descent;  and  their  God,  however  separate  from  the  world, 
wmU  always  have  the  characteristics  of  a  great  man,  of  a 
mighty  prince,  of  a  king  of  the  desert.  .  .  . 

"  As  to  the  fundamental  doctrine,  one  can  hardly  be 
mistaken  in  admitting  that  it  tends  to  return  to  its  absolute 
\i.e.  pantheistic]  form,  and  that,  in  spite  of  all  the  modi- 
fications which  transient  causes  may  impose  upon  it,  it  per- 
sists, like  the  race  that  first  conceived  it,  in  its  transparency 
and  spontaneity.  Thence  comes  it  that  when  we,  Aryans, 
give  ourselves  the  pains  to  make  a  comparative  study  of 
the  Koran,  the  Bible,  and  the  Veda,  we  reject  the  first  as 
the  work  of  a  race  inferior  to  ours ;  the  second  astonishes 
at  the  outset,  yet  without  having  much  attraction  for  us, 
as  we  perceive  that  the  men  concerned  in  it  were  not  of 
the  same  race  with  ourselves  and  did  not  think  as  we  do  ; 
in  the  third,  all  modern  science  recognizes  its  own  verita- 
ble ancestry.  It  is  thence,  consequently,  that  the  light 
was  born,  and,  in  spite  of  refracting  media,  has  been  trans- 
mitted even  to  us.  Some  of  these  media  have  let  the  ray 
pass  scarcely  bent ;  others  have  broken  it,  decomposed  it, 
discolored  it ;  there  are  those  which  have  almost  quenched 
it,  and  which  have  remained  opaque.  It  is  to  science  that  it 
belongs  to  survey  the  routes  which  the  religious  idea,  that 


270  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

took  its  departure  from  central  Asia,  has  followed  over  the 
world,  and  to  determine  the  causes  which  in  every  country- 
have  more  or  less  essentially  modified  it.  It  is  for  science 
to  reconstruct  the  primitive  idea  of  the  doctrine,  and  to 
enunciate  the  laws  that  have  governed  its  transmission." 
—  Emile  Burnouf,  La  Science  des  Religions^  Ch.  XI. 

These  extracts  indicate  the  views  professed  by  a  large 
school  of  continental  savants^  of  which  Burnouf  is  a  fair 
representative.  They  regard  belief  in  the  divine  person- 
ality as  the  birth  of  an  inferior  order  of  intellectual  de- 
velopment, and  maintain  that  it  will  yield  place  to  panthe- 
ism with  the  growing  ascendency  of  the  Aryan  races. 

Note  H.  —  Page  123. 

Cicero  in  his  De  Officiis  (III.  32)  quotes  Polybius,  who 
was  regarded  as  of  the  highest  authority  in  his  history  of  this 
war,  as  telling  the  story  of  one  perjured  soldier  sent  back 
to  Hannibal  in  chains ;  and  cites  Acilius,  another  historian 
of  approved  credit,  as  telling  a  similar  story  of  several 
captives,  who  were  suffered  to  remain  at  Rome,  but  were 
degraded  from  citizenship.  In  an  earlier  part  of  the  De 
Officiis  (I.  13)  Cicero  without  quoting  any  authority,  says 
that  ten  were  sent  back  to  Rome,  and  staid  there  in  degra- 
dation ;  and  that  one  of  those  ten  unsuccessfully  claimed 
immunity  for  his  violated  oath  by  a  "  constructive  return." 
This  confusion  of  accounts  as  to  the  details  of  a  well- 
known  passage  of  history'  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  fact 
that  it  was  so  well  known,  and  that  so  intense  stress  was 
laid  in  the  popular  speech  and  memory  on  the  central 
incident  of  a  shameless  and  till  then  unprecedented  per- 
jury. 


CONTRO  VERSY  ABOUT  EASTER.  27 1 

Note  L  —  Page  131. 

"When  I  was  sent  by  Titus  Caesar  with  Cerealius,  and 
a  thousand  horsemen,  to  a  certain  village  called  Thecoa, 
in  order  to  know  whether  it  were  a  place  for  a  camp,  as 
I  came  back  I  saw  many  captives  crucified,  and  I  recog- 
nized three  of  them  as  among  my  former  acquaintance.  I 
was  very  much  grieved  at  this,  and  went  in  tears  to  Titus, 
and  told  him  of  them.  He  immediately  ordered  that  they 
should  be  taken  down,  and  that  every  thing  possible  should 
be  done  for  their  recovery  ;  yet  two  of  them  died  under  the 
physician's  hands,  while  the  third  recovered." — Life  of 
Josephus,  §  75. 

Note  J.  —  Page  135. 

The  churches  of  Asia  Minor  seem  to  have  celebrated 
the  crucifixion  and  the  resurrection  on  their  reputed  anni- 
versaries, on  whatever  days  of  the  week  they  might  occur, 
and  they  appealed  for  this  usage  to  the  authority  of  the 
apostle  John.  Polycarp,  Bishop  of  Smyrna,  alleged  that 
he  had  himself  thus  observed  the  sacred  season  with  the 
apostle  John.  Anicetus,  Bishop  of  Rome,  also  claimed 
apostolic  authority  for  dissent  from  this  practice.  Both  may 
have  been  in  the  right ;  for  it  is  by  no  means  improbable 
that  in  a  matter  in  itself  unessential  a  diversity  of  practice 
might  have  grown  up  under  the  auspices  of  different  mem- 
bers of  the  apostolic  college.  The  controversy,  which  was 
sometimes  waged  with  no  little  acrimony  in  the  primitive 
Church,  is  of  importance  only  as  establishing  the  antiquity 
of  the  celebration,  and  thus  confirming  the  authenticity  of 
the  resuiTection,  no  less  than  that  of  the  crucifixion  which 
no  one  doubts.  (See  Neander's  "  Church  History,"  vol.  i., 
section  3.) 


272  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 


Note  K.  —  Page  156. 

"The  future  world  has  been  placed  by  the  wisdom  of 
God,  just  in  that  light  in  which  it  is  most  for  our  benefit 
that  it  should  be  placed.  Were  we  fixed  in  the  situation 
of  the  apostle  John,  were  the  heavenly  state  continually 
laid  open  to  our  view,  religion  would  be  no  longer  a  volun- 
tary service ;  we  should  be  forced  to  attend  to  objects  so 
transcendently  glorious  brought  thus  near  to  us.  Could 
we  distinctly  hear  the  voices,  like  mighty  thunderings, 
heard  within  the  vail,  they  would  render  us  deaf  to  every 
earthly  sound :  religion  would  be  no  longer  matter  of 
choice ;  and  consequently  faith  would  be  no  longer  matter 
of  virtue.  The  preference  of  present  to  future  interests, 
and  therefore  the  exercise  of  self-denial,  would  be  impos- 
sible. But  the  Divine  Being  has  been  pleased  to  throw 
over  the  heavenly  world  a  great  degree  of  obscurity.  Jesus 
Christ  has,  indeed,  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light  by 
the  Gospel ;  has  raised  our  hopes  to  the  highest  point,  by 
investing  the  future  state  of  glory  with  unspeakable  eleva- 
tion and  grandeur,  but  has  not  explicitly  taught  in  what 
that  state  will  consist.  *  It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  we 
shall  be.'  We  know  enough  of  futurity  to  make  it  become 
the  great  object  of  our  attention ;  although  it  does  not  so 
press  upon  our  organs  as  to  render  us  insensible  to  pres- 
ent scenes  and  interests."  —  Robert  Hall,  Works  (Greg- 
or)"'s  edition),  vol.  iii.  p.  326. 

"  In  a  divine  revelation,  we  must  expect  many  points  of 
information  to  be  reserved.  You  send  a  child,  for  instance, 
on  an  errand  to  a  distant  street;  and  you  give  him  the 
street's  name,  and  the  number  of  the  crossings,  and  repeat 
to  him  perhaps  more  than  once  his  particular  business; 


THE  SILENCE  OF  REVELATION.  273 

but  you  do  not  detain  and  perplex  him  by  either  a  history 
or  a  panoramic  exhibition  of  the  city  he  visits.  '  Wlien  I 
was  a  child,  I  spake  as  a  child ; '  and  the  converse  is  also 
true :  '  When  I  was  a  child,  I  was  spoken  to  as  a  child : 
such  knowledge  was  given  to  me  as  was  proper  for  my 
childhood's  estate.'  And  even  in  our  manhood,  and  with 
reference  to  our  fellow-men,  there  are  always  topics  as  to 
which  we  are  more  or  less  ignorant,  and  as  to  which  specu- 
lative information  is  withheld.  Thus  a  government  sends 
forth  a  colonist ;  but  gives  him  just  information  enough  to 
enable  him  to  perform  his  particular  work.  A  general 
charges  an  inferior  officer  with  a  special  duty ;  but  here, 
too,  there  is  silence  as  to  whatever  does  not  belong  to  this 
duty.  To  enlarge  the  official  directions  given  in  either 
case,  so  as  to  include  all  the  knowledge  the  superior  may 
possess,  would  perplex  the  agent,  and  withdraw  his  atten- 
tion from  that  which  concerned  his  work  to  that  which  did 
not  concern  it.  And  if  we  are  to  expect  such  silence  in  a 
parent's  dealings  with  a  child,  and  in  a  government's  deal- 
ings with  a  subaltern,  how  much  more  reason  have  we  to 
expect  it  in  the  dealings  of  God  with  man  !  God  knows 
all  things  and  endures  from  eternity  to  eternity  ;  man 
comes  into  the  world  knowing  nothing ;  lives  at  the  best  a 
life  which  endures  for  a  few  years ;  and  in  this  short  life 
is  charged  with  the  momentous  question  of  settling  his 
own  destiny  for  the  eternity  to  come.  Silence,  then,  on 
all  irrelevant  questions  is  what  we  would  expect  in  the 
revelation  of  an  all-wise  God  ;  and  of  the  irrelevancy.  He  is 
the  sole  judge."  —  Rev.  Francis  Wharton,  D.D.,  LL.D., 
The  Silence  of  Scripture^  chap.  i. 


12* 


274  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 


Note  L.  —  Page  162. 
"Valor,  or  active  courage,  is  for  the  most  part  consti- 
tutional, and  therefore  can  have  no  more  claim  to  moral 
merit  than  wit,  beauty,  health,  strength,  or  any  other 
endowment  of  the  mind  or  body  ;  and  so  far  is  it  from 
producing  any  salutary  effects  by  introducing  peace,  order, 
or  happiness  into  society,  that  it  is  the  usual  perpetrator 
of  all  the  violences  which  from  retaliated  injuries  distract 
the  world  with  bloodshed  and  devastation.  It  is  the  en- 
gine by  which  the  strong  are  enabled  to  plunder  the  weak, 
the  proud  to  trample  upon  the  humble,  and  the  guilty  to 
oppress  the  innocent ;  it  is  the  chief  instrument  which 
ambition  employs  in  her  unjust  pursuits  of  wealth  and 
power,  and  is  therefore  so  much  extolled  by  her  votaries. 
It  was,  indeed,  congenial  with  the  religion  of  pagans,  whose 
gods  were,  for  the  most  part,  made  out  of  deceased  heroes, 
exalted  to  heaven  as  a  reward  for  the  mischiefs  which  they 
had  perpetrated  upon  earth,  and  therefore  with  them  this 
was  the  first  of  virtues,  and  had  even  engrossed  that 
denomination  to  itself;  but  whatever  merit  it  may  have 
assumed  among  pagans,  with  Christians  it  can  pretend  to 
none,  and  few  or  none  are  the  occasions  in  which  they  are 
permitted  to  exert  it.  They  are  so  far  from  being  allowed 
to  inflict  evil,  that  they  are  forbid  even  to  resist  it ;  they 
are  so  far  from  being  encouraged  to  revenge  injuries,  that 
one  of  their  first  duties  is  to  forgive  them ;  so  far  from 
being  incited  to  destroy  their  enemies,  that  they  are  com- 
manded to  love  them,  and  to  serve  them  to  the  utmost  of 
their  power.  If  Christian  nations  therefore  were  nations 
of  Christians,  all  war  would  be  impossible  and  unknown 
amongst  them,  and  valor  could  be  neither  of  use  or  esti- 


CHRIS  TIAN  VIE  VV  OF  PA  TRIO  TISM.  275 

mation,  and  therefore  could  never  have  a  place  in  the  cata- 
logue of  Christian  virtues^  being  irreconcilable  with  all  its 
precepts.  I  object  not  to  the  praise  and  honors  bestowed 
on  the  valiant,  —  they  are  the  least  tribute  which  can  be  paid 
them  by  those  who  enjoy  safety  and  affluence  by  the  inter- 
vention of  their  dangers  and  sufferings,  —  and  assert  only, 
that  active  courage  can  never  be  a  Christian  virtue,  be- 
cause a  Christian  can  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  Passive 
courage  is  indeed  frequently  and  properly  inculcated  by 
this  meek  and  suffering  religion,  under  the  titles  of  patience 
and  resignation  :  a  real  and  substantial  virtue  this,  and  a 
direct  contrast  to  the  form'er;  for  passive  courage  arises 
from  the  noblest  dispositions  of  the  human  mind,  from  a 
contempt  of  misfortunes,  pain,  and  death,  and  a  confidence 
in  the  protection  of  the  Almighty ;  active,  from  the  mean- 
est,—  from  passion,  vanity,  and  self-dependence:  passive 
courage  is  derived  from  a  zeal  for  truth,  and  a  persever- 
ance in  duty ;  active  is  the  offspring  of  pride  and  revenge, 
and  the  parent  of  cruelty  and  injustice  :  in  short,  passive 
courage  is  the  consolation  of  a  philosopher ;  active,  the 
ferocity  of  a  savage.  Nor  is  this  more  incompatible  with 
the  precepts,  than  with  the  object  of  this  religion,  which 
is  the  attainment  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  for  valor  is 
not  that  sort  of  violence  by  which  that  kingdom  is  to  be 
taken ;  nor  are  the  turbulent  spirits  of  heroes  and  con- 
querors admissible  into  those  regions  of  peace,  subordina- 
tion, and  tranquillity. 

"  Patriotism,  also,  that  celebrated  virtue,  so  much  prac- 
tised in  ancient,  and  so  much  professed  in  modern  times, 
that  virtue,  which  so  long  preserved  the  liberties  of  Greece, 
and  exalted  Rome  to  the  empire  of  the  world,  —  this  cele- 
brated virtue,  I  say,  must  also  be  excluded ;  because  it 
not  only  falls  short  of,  but  directly  counteracts,  the  exten- 


276  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

sive  benevolence  of  this  religion.  A  Christian  is  of  no 
country ;  he  is  a  citizen  of  the  world  ;  and  his  neigh- 
bors and  countrymen  are  the  inhabitants  of  the  remotest 
regions,  whenever  their  distresses  demand  his  friendly 
assistance.  Christianity  enjoins  us  to  imitate  the  universal 
benevolence  of  our  Creator,  who  pours  forth  his  blessings 
on  every  nation  upon  earth ;  patriotism,  to  copy  the  mean 
partiality  of  an  English  parish  officer,  who  thinks  injustice 
and  cruelty  meritorious,  whenever  they  promote  the  inter- 
ests of  his  own  inconsiderable  village.  This  has  ever 
been  a  favorite  virtue  with  mankind,  because  it  conceals 
self-interest  under  the  mask  of  public  spirit,  not  only  from 
others,  but  even  from  themselves,  and  gives  a  license  to 
inflict  wrongs  and  injuries,  not  only  with  impunity,  but 
with  applause ;  but  it  is  so  diametrically  opposite  to  the 
great  characteristic  of  this  institution,  that  it  never  could 
have  been  admitted  into  the  list  of  Christian  virtues. 

"Friendship,  likewise,  although  more  congenial  to  the 
principles  of  Christianity,  arising  from  more  tender  and 
amiable  dispositions,  could  never  gain  admittance  amongst 
her  benevolent  precepts  for  the  same  reason  ;  because  it 
is  so  narrow  and  confined,  and  appropriates  that  benevo- 
lence to  a  single  object,  which  is  here  commanded  to  be 
extended  over  all.  Where  friendships  arise  from  similarity 
of  sentiments,  and  disinterested  affections,  they  are  advan- 
tageous, agreeable,  and  innocent,  but  have  little  preten- 
sions to  merit ;  for  it  is  justly  observed,  '  If  ye  love  them 
which  love  you,  what  thank  have  ye  ?  for  sinners  also  love 
those  that  love  them.'  But  if  they  are  formed  from 
alliances  in  parties,  factions,  and  interests,  or  from  a  par- 
ticipation of  vices,  the  usual  parents  of  what  are  called 
friendships  among  mankind,  they  are  then  both  mischiev- 
ous and  criminal,  and  consequently  forbidden ;  but  in  their 


D URA  TION  OF  CHRIST S  MINIS TR  V.  277 

Utmost  purity  deserve  no  recommendation  from  this  relig- 
ion."—  SoAME  Jenyns,  Internal  Evidence  of  the  Christian 
Relino?i. 


"ii' 


Note  M.  —  Page  176. 

We  have  in  the  synoptic  Gospels  the  record  of  but  two 
passovers  during  the  public  portion  of  our  Saviour's  life, 
the  last  being  that  made  memorable  by  his  death  and 
resurrection.  We  have  the  record  of  but  three  feasts  other 
than  passovers ;  namely,  that  of  Tabernacles,  that  of  the 
Dedication,  and  one  earlier  than  these,  not  designated  by 
name,  at  which  occurred  the  cure  of  the  infirm  man  at  the 
pool  of  Bethesda.  The  fourth  Gospel  (vi.  4)  seems  to 
refer  to  another  passover  as  near  at  hand  at  the  time  of 
the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand.  If  this  narrative  holds 
in  John's  Gospel  its  true  chronological  place,  he  certainly 
describes  three  passovers.  On  the  bipaschal  hypothesis 
the  narrative  of  the  five  thousand  must  belong  in  the  order 
of  time  between  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  chapters.  To  have 
placed  it  there  would  have  separated  two  narratives  which 
for  aesthetic  and  spiritual  reasons  the  author  may  have 
specially  desired  to  present  in  close  connection ;  namely, 
the  raising  of  Lazarus,  and  Christ's  next  meeting  with 
Lazarus  and  his  sisters  at  their  house  in  Bethany,  on  the 
first  day  of  the  crucifixion-week.  This  transposition  of 
the  sixth  chapter  brings  John's  chronology  into  harmony 
with  that  of  the  synoptics  ;  and  we  then  have  no  great  feast 
that  occurred  during  our  Saviour's  ministry  without  some 
record  of  him  in  connection  with  it.  There  seems  to  have 
been  no  unanimous  tradition  in  the  early  Church  as  to  the 
length  of  our  Lord's  ministry.  Irenaeus,  however,  recog- 
nized three  passovers ;  while  most  of  the  Fathers  speak 
of  Christ's  ministry  as  having  embraced  but  one  full  year, 


278  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

quoting  as  literally  applicable  to  it  the  words  of  the  Mes- 
sianic prediction,  "The  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 
Whether  they  drew  their  chronology  from  the  single  noun 
in  the  prediction,  or  whether  they  quoted  that  noun  in  con- 
firmation of  knowledge  elsewhere  acquired,  it  is  impossible 
to  say.    They  were  entirely  capable  of  the  former. 

Note  N.  —  Page  196. 

The  flagitious  facility  and  frequency  of  divorce  in  the 
latter  days  of  the  republic,  and  under  the  earlier  emperors, 
cannot  be  overstated.  The  most  virtuous  men  in  the  city 
did  not  regard  the  wanton,  arbitrary  repudiation  of  a  wife 
as  a  stain  on  their  virtue.  Cato  Uticensis,  a  man  of  incor- 
ruptible integrity,  and  deemed  a  paragon  of  excellence, 
did  not  hesitate  to  give  his  wife  and  the  mother  of  his 
children  in  marriage  to  his  friend  Hortensius,  so  far  as  it 
appears  without  even  asking  her  consent,  taking  her  again 
as  a  wife  when  she  became  the  rich  widow  of  Hortensius. 
^milius  Paulus  divorced  a  wife  whom  he  confessed  to  be 
blameless,  without  so  much  as  giving  a  reason  for  his  con- 
duct. Cicero,  after  a  married  life  of  thirty  years  or  more, 
divorced  the  mother  of  his  children,  at  best,  on  account  of 
a  quarrel  about  property,  —  according  to  the  statement  of 
his  less  partial  biographers,  in  order  to  marry  the  young 
heiress,  his  ward,  whom  he  shortly  afterward  did  marry. 
The  divorce  to  which  the  emperor  Augustus  compelled 
Li  via,  that  she  might  become  his  wife,  is  even  more  revolt- 
ing in  its  circumstances  than  either  of  the  above-named 
instances.  "  Caesar  cupidine  formae  aufert  marito,  incer- 
tum  nam  invitam  ;  adeo  properus,  ut,  ne  spatio  quidem 
ad  enitendum  dato,  Penatibus  suis  gravidam  induxerit."  — ■ 
Tacitus,  Aufial.^  v.  i. 


PATERNAL  POWER  IN  ROME.  279 

Cicero,  in  his  Oration  for  Cluentius,  relates  a  case, 
which  must  even  then  have  indicated  abnormal  depravity, 
but  which  was  fully  within  the  legal  rights  of  the  parties 
to  the  transaction.  The  mother  of  his  client  had  induced 
her  own  son-in-law  to  repudiate  his  but  recently  married 
wife  that  she  might  take  her  daughter's  place  in  his  house- 
hold. "Lectum  ilium  genialem,  quem  biennio  ante  filiae 
suas  nubenti  straverit,  in  eadem  domo  sibi  ornari  et 
sterni,  expulsa  atque  exturbata  lilia,  jubet."  —  Cicero, 
pro  A.  Cluentio  Avito,  §  5. 

The  following  passage  from  Seneca  indicates  the  profli- 
gate extent  to  which  the  mania  for  divorce  had  diffused 
itself  among  the  women  of  his  time :  "  Pudorem  rei  tollit 
multitudo  peccantium  ;  et  desinet  esse  probri  loco  com- 
mune maledictum.  Numquid  jam  uUa  repudio  erubescit, 
postquam  illustres  quaedam  ac  nobiles  feminae,  non  con- 
sulum  numero,  sed  maritorum,  annos  suos  computant,  et 
exeunt  matrimonii  causa,  nubunt  repudii?  Tamdiu  illud 
timebatur,  quamdiu  rarum  erat.  Quia  vero  nulla  sine 
divortio  acta  sunt,  quod  saepe  audiebant,  facere  didicerunt. 
Numquid  jarn  ullus  adulterii  pudor  est,  postquam  eo  ven- 
tum  est,  ut  nulla  virum  habeat,  nisi  ut  aduterum  irritet  "i 
Argumentum  est  deformitatis  pudicitia," — JDe  BeneficiiSy 
iii.  16. 

Note  O.  —  Page  197. 

The  latest  instance  of  the  extreme  exercise  of  the  power 
of  life  and  death  by  the  father  of  which  we  have  record 
is  a  case  recorded  by  Seneca;  and  in  this  instance  it 
would  seem  that  public  sentiment  had  already  outgrown 
the  law.  He  writes  :  "  Within  our  memory  the  people  in 
the  forum  stabbed  with  their  stili  Erixo,  a  Roman  knight, 
who  had  whipped   his  son  to  death.     The  authority  of 


28o  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

Augustus  Caesar  hardly  sufficed  to  rescue  him  from  the 
hostile  hands  of  fathers,  no  less  than  of  sons."  —  De  de- 
mentia^ i.  14. 

We  have  no  intimation  that  Erixo's  act  was  illegal, 
nor  have  we  proof  that  it  would  have  been  so  at  any- 
period  prior  to  the  conversion  of  Constantine. 

Note  P.  —  Page  199. 

The  law  of  divorce  in  the  Code  of  Theodosius  annexes 
some  similar  crimes  to  those  specified  in  Constantine's 
edict  of  331.  The  following  are  its  provisions  as  regards 
the  wife's  and  the  husband's  right  to  divorce. 

"  Si  maritum  suum  adulterum,  aut  parricidam,  aut  venefi- 
cum,  vel  certe  contra  nostrum  imperium  molientem,  vel 
falsitatis  crimine  condemnatum  invenerit,  si  sepulchrorum 
dissolutorem,  si  sacris  sedibus  aliquid  subtrahentem,  si 
latronem,  vel  latronum  susceptorem,  vel  abactorem,  aut 
plagiarium,  vel  ad  contemptum  sui  domusve  suae  ipsa  inspi- 
ciente  cum  impudicis  mulieribus  (quod  maxime  etiam  castas 
exasperat)  ccetum  ineuntem,  si  suae  vitae  veneno,  aut  gladio, 
aut  alio  simili  modo  insidiantem,  in  se  verberibus  (quae  in- 
genuis  aliena  sunt)  afficientem  probaverit,  tunc  repudii  aux- 
ilio  uti  necessario  permittimus  libertatem,  et  causa  dissidii, 
legibus  comprobare." 

"  Vir  quoque  pari  fine  clauditur,  nee  licebit  ei  sine  causis 
apertius  designatis  propriam  repudiare  jugalem ;  nee  ullo 
modo  expellat  nisi  adulteram,  vel  veneficam,  aut  homi- 
cidam,  aut -plagiariam,  aut  sepulchrorum  dissolutricem,  aut 
ex  sacris  aedibus  aliquid  subtrahentem,  aut  latronum  fau- 
tricem,  aut  extraneorum  virorum.  se  ignorante  vel  nolente, 
convivia  appetentem ;  aut  ipso  invito  sine  justa  et  proba- 
bili  causa  foris  scilicet  pernoctantem,  vel  circensibus,  vel 


INFANTICIDE  IN  ROME.  28 1 

theatralibus,  ludis,  vel  arenarum  spectaculis  in  ipsis  locis, 
in  quibus  haec  adsolent  celebrari,  se  prohibente,  gaudentem, 
vel  sibi  veneno,  vel  gladio,  aut  alio  simili  modo  insidiatri- 
cem,  vel  contra  nostrum  imperium  aliquid  machinantibus 
consciam,  seu  falsitatis  se  crimini  immiscentem,  invenerit, 
aut  manus  audaces  sibi  probaverit  ingerentem,  —  tunc  enim 
necessario  ei  discedendi  permittimus  facultatem,  et  causas 
dissidii  legibus  comprobare." 

The  Church  from  the  very  first  adhered  to  the  stricter 
evangelic  law  of  divorce,  which,  with  the  growing  ascend- 
ency of  the  Church,  prevailed  in  the  legislation  of  the 
empire,  as  it  did  in  the  codes  of  all  Christian  nations  till 
a  comparatively  recent  period. 

Note  Q.  —  Page  199. 

The  first  law  annulling  the  power  of  the  father  over  the 
child's  life  is  an  edict  of  Constantine  (a.d.  318),  which 
subjects  the  father  who  kills  his  child  to  the  normal  pun- 
ishment of  the  parricide ;  namely,  being  sewed  up  in  a 
bag  with  a  cock,  an  ape,  and  a  viper,  and  thrown  into  the 
sea,  or  the  nearest  river. 

With  regard  to  infanticide,  we  have  from  Lactantius 
ample  proof  that  the  practice  prevailed  without  reproach 
or  shame  until  the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century.  In 
A.D.  315  we  find  an  edict  of  Constantine  recognizing 
the  practice  as  prevalent.  "Let  all  the  cities  of  Italy 
take  note  of  this  law,  which  is  designed  to  turn  aside  the 
hands  of  fathers  from  child-murder,  and  to  inspire  them 
with  a  better  mind.  If  any  father  has  children  whom  he 
is  too  poor  to  feed  and  clothe,  let  food  and  clothing  be 
furnished  without  delay  from  our  treasury  and  our  domain; 
for  aid  to  be  given  to  new-born  children  does  not  admit  of 


282  CHRISTIANITY  AND  SCIENCE. 

■  delay."  [This,  we  believe,  was  the  earliest  poor-law  in  the 
Roman  empire.]  Theodosius  subsequently  made  the  ex- 
posure of  children  a  capital  crime. 

In  addition  to  the  quasi-castrense  pecuHum,  which  under 
Constantine  was  made  to  include  the  income  of  various 
offices,  Constantine  sanctioned  by  his  imperial  edict  the 
peculium  adventitium,  which  embraced  whatever  came  to 
the  son  from  his  mother,  whether  by  will  or  by  inheritance. 
Subsequent  Christian  emperors  enlarged  this  peculium^  so 
as  to  include  whatever  might  come  by  bequest,  succession, 
or  gift  from  the  child's  maternal  kindred,  as  also  gifts  from 
the  wife  to  the  husband  or  from  the  husband  to  the  wife ; 
and  Justinian,  finally,  extended  it  to  whatever  came  to  the 
child  from  any  source  other  than  the  father  himself. 

Note  R.  —  Page  204. 

The  following  is  the  edict  of  Constantine  (a.d.  312) 
referred  to  in  the  text :  "  Nee  immoderate  jure  suo  utatur 
[dominus] :  sed  tunc  reus  homicidii  sit,  si  voluntate  eum 
[servum]  ictu  fustis  aut  lapidis  casciderit;  vel  certe  telo 
usus,  lethale  vulnus  inflixerit,  aut  suspendi  laqueo  praecep- 
erit,  vel  jussione  tetra  praecipitandum  esse  mandaverit,  aut 
veneni  virus  infuderit,  vel  dilaniaverit  pcenis  publicis  cor- 
pus, ferarum  unguibus  latera  persecando,  vel  exurendo 
oblatis  ignibus  membra,  aut  tabescentes  artus  atro  san- 
guine permixta  sanie  defluentes,  prope  in  ipsis  adegerit 
cruciatibus  vitam  relinquere  saevitia  immanium  Barbaro- 
rum." 


INDEX. 


Page 

Apocryphal  Gospels 261 

Apostles,  profession  of  the 244 

sacrifices  and  sufferings  of  the 235 

testimony  of  the 232 

writings  of  the 237 

Bipaschal  hypothesis  as  to  the  duration  of  Christ's  ministry .     .  277 

Celsus,  implied  testimony  of,  to  the  genuineness  of  the  Gospels  66 

Christ,  character  of,  as  a  man 47 

character  of,  in  the  first  three  Gospels  and  in  the  fourth 

Gospel  the  same 85 

claims  of,  not  to  be  traced  to  delusion 62 

not  to  fraud 61 

ethical  teachings  of 54 

influence  of,  in  human  history 58 

religious  doctrines  of 56 

resurrection  of 118 

unaccounted  for  except  on  the  theory  of  his  divine  mis- 
sion    59 

unique  as  an  historical  personage 53 

Christianity,  defined 5 

early  progress  of 188 

effect  of,  on  character 166 

on  domestic  life 195 

on  government 205 

on  institutional  charity 207 

on  public  opinion 192 

on  slavery 201 

independent  of  Judaism 9 

influence  of,  as  an  energizing  power 175 

as  a  resource  in  death 183 


284  INDEX, 

Page 

Christianity,  influence  of,  as  a  source  of  consolation      ....  180 

tried  by  experience 168 

Christians,  primitive,  qualified  to  judge  of  evidence      ....  33 
Cicero,  contradictory  statements  of,  as  to  an  event  in  the  second 

Punic  war 270 

Divorce,  in  the  Roman  law  and  practice  ....          ....  278 

under  Christian  auspices 280 

Easter,  early  controversy  concerning 271 

Ethics,  Christian,  charges  against 156 

not  ascetic 157 

not  defective 159 

Eusebius,  testimony  of,  to  the  Gospels 34 

treatment  of  Papias  by 35 

Evolution  theory,  consistent  with  Christianity 4 

Experiment,  in  science 165 

in  Christianity 166 

Father,  power  of  the,  over  the  child,  by  the  Roman  law    .     .     .  279 

Genealogies  of  Christ,  how  reconciled 78 

Gnostics,  virtual  testimony  of  the,  to  the  Gospels 36 

Gospel,  fourth,  could  have  been  written  by  none  but  John    .     .  83 

most  remarkable  book  in  the  world 80 

relation  of,  to  Gnosticism 90 

salient  features  of,  accounted  for 87 

Gospels,  antiquity  of  the,  proved  by  citations  and  references     .  15 
,                         by   latent    coincidences   with 

profane  history     ....  21 
by  linguistic  structure   ...  18 
by  local  and  historical  accu- 
racy       19 

authenticity  of  the,  proved  by  the  character  of  Christ  .  47 

by  their  genuineness  ...  41 
by  their   relations   to   one 

another 43 

genuineness  of  the,  proved  by  testimony  of  the  Chris- 
tian fathers 24 


INDEX.  285 

Page 

Gospels,  genuineness  of  the,  proved  by  testimony  of  heretics     .  35 

by    testimony    of    writers 

hostile  to  Christianity  .  37 
by  their   relations   to   one 

another '.  43 

synoptic,  coincidences  of 74 

how  accounted  for  .      ...  75 

not  copied  from  one  another 70 

not  of  gradual  growth 71 

witnesses  to  their  own  authenticity 46 

Government,  effect  of  Christianity  on 205 

Hall,  Robert,  quoted  as  to  the  silence  of  revelation 272 

Heiod  Antipas,  war  of,  with  Aretas,  confirming  the  Gospel  nar- 
rative    258 

Home-life,  effect  of  Christianity  upon 195 

Infanticide,  first  prohibited  by  Constantine 281 

Infidelity,  changed  complexion  of 94 

not  a  working  force 179 

Inspiration,  a  secondary  question 8 

Intuition  defined 213 

evidential  value  of 224 

in  science  and  Christianity 211 

objective 214 

subjective 218 

valid  evidence  on  logical  grounds 226 

Irenaeus,  testimony  of,  to  the  Gospels :  7 

James,  epistle  of 241 

Jenyns,  Soame,  quoted  as  to  the  place  of  courage,  patriotism, 

and  friendship  in  the  Christian  ethics 274 

Jewish  theory  of  Christ's  miracles 264 

Judas,  worth  of,  as  a  witness  for  Christ 253 

Justin  Martyr,  alleged  additions  of,  to  the  Gospel  history      .     .  258 

a  witness  to  the  authenticity  of  the  Gospels    .     .  31 

Matthew,  as  a  witness  for  Jesus 246 

Miracles,  alleged  impossibility  of q6 


286  INDEX. 

Page 

Miracles,  availing  evidence  for  spiritual  truth 109 

historical  effect  of 113 

necessary  to  authenticate  a  divine  message  or  mes- 
senger        IC7 

to  demonstrate  immortality 105 

to  reveal  the  divine  personality      ....  102 

not  a  divine  afterthought      .     .     .          115 

not  negatived  by  the  plurality  of  worlds 116 

possible  if  there  be  a  God 98 

Origen,  testimony  of,  to  the  Gospels 25 

Pantheism,  claimed  to  be  the  religion  of  the  Aryan  races  .     .     .  263 

Papias,  account  of,  by  Eusebius 261 

Paul  a  witness  to  the  authenticity  of  the  Gospels 64 

to  the  resurrection  of  Christ 119 

Peter,  testimony  of,  as  affected  by  his  character 246 

Renan,  testimony  of,  to  the  local  accuracy  of  the  Gospels      .     .  234 

Resurrection  of  Christ,  adapted  to  human  needs 138 

attested  by  Paul 119 

effect  of,  on  human  history 123 

evidence  for,  stronger  with  the  lapse  of  time     .     .  141 

not  an  hallucination 125 

not  an  imposture 129 

of  what  service 135 

the  crown  of  Christ's  example 136 

the  universal  belief  of  the  early  Christians    .     .     .  121 

Scepticism  of  the  heart  and  of  the  intellect  discriminated  .     .     .  250 

Science  defined 3 

not  at  variance  with  Christianity 11 

Silence  of  Christianity  cherishes  devout  thought 149 

essential  to  our  spiritual  culture    .     .     .  148 
furnishes  evidence  of  the  divinity  of  the 

religion 144 

made  necessary  by  the  poverty  of  lan- 
guage    152 

various  uses  of 147 


INDEX.  287 

Page 

Simon,  the  Canaanlte,  testimony  of 247 

Slavery  as  affected  by  Christianity 201 

Slaves,  murder  of,  declared  homicide  by  Constantine    ....  282 

Socrates,  death  of 183 

Statute  of  limitations,  principle  of,  applied  to  testimony  con- 
cerning the  Gospels 39 

Stoicism  contrasted  with  Christianity 180 

Testimony  the  basis  of  science 12 

equally  that  of  Christianity 13 

Thomas  to  be  honored  for  his  scepticism 249 

Wharton,  Francis,  quoted  as  to  the  silence  of  revelation  .     .    .  273 


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2        ROBKRT  CARTKR  AND  BROTHERS*  CATALOGUE. 

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( 

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8        ROBERT  CARTER  AND  BROTHERS*  CATALOGUE. 

Flavel,  John. 

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Foxe,  John. 

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1 

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ROBERT  CARTER  AND  BROTHERS'  CATALOGUE. 


Guthrie,  Thomas,  D.D. 

Works  in  9  vols.,  in  a  box.    $13.50. 

The  Gospel  in  Ezekiel $1.50 

The  Saint's  Inhekitance 160 

The  Way  to  Life 1.50 

On  THE  Parables.    Illustrated,  with  a  brief  Memoir 1.50 

Oct  of  Harness 1.50 

Speaking  to  the  Heart.    (Enlarged  edition) 1.50 

Studies  of  Character 1.50 

The  City  and  Ragged  Schools.    In  one  volume 1.50 

Man  and  the  Gospel  and  Cub  Father's  Business.    In  one  volume   .  1.50 

"  In  the  quiet,  tender  pathos  which  ^ouches  some  of  the  purest  emotions  of  the  heart;  in 
the  power  to  make  the  common  things  around  us  illustrate  and  enforce  some  of  the  grand 
truths  of  revelation  ;  in  the  appreciation  of  deeds  of  generosity  and  heroism  ;  in  the  inculco- 
cation  ot  hii;h  views  of  Christian  life  and  duty  ;  and  in  the  application  of  the  precious  con80> 
latioDS  of  the  Qospel,  Dr.  Quthrie's  Works  bare  not  been  surpassed  in  this  generation." 

Haldane,  Alexander. 

Memoirs  of  U.  and  J.  A.  Haldajtr 2.5U 

Haldane,  Robert, 

On  KO.MAN3 3.00 

Of  this  work  the  Edinburgh  "  Presbyterian  Review  "  says :  "  In  ingenuity,  it  is 
equal  to  Turretine ;  in  theological  accuracy,  superior.  It  is  at  least  as  judicious  as 
Scott,  and  more  terse,  pointed,  and  discursive.  The  only  Commentary  on  the  Itomans 
that  we  have  read  that  it  does  not  excel  is  that  of  Calvin.  Calvin  and  Haldane  stand 
alone,  the  possessors,  as  expounders  of  this  Epistle,  of  nearly  equal  honors." 

Hall,  Newman,  D.D. 

Follow  Jesus 35 

Quench  not  the  Spirit 35 

Now 35 

Hamilton,  James,  D.D. 

The  Royal  Pkeachek 125 

Lessons  from  the  Great  Biography 1.25 

LiFK  IN  Eau.nkst 50 

Mount  of  Olives 50 

Harp  on  the  Willows 50 

Emblems  fhom  Eden 5«J 

The  Lake  of  Galilee 50 

Happy  Home 75 

Life  of  Lady  Colquhoun .  .  1.00 

La  .MP  AND  Lantekn .  .   .50 

The  Prodigal  Son.     Illustrated 3.00 

The  Peakl  of  Par^vbles 1  25 

Life  of  Ricmard  Williams 1  00 

,,      „    .James  Wilson 1  25 

MosKS,  the  Man  of  God 1.50 

Life  of  Dr    Hamilton.    By  A  mot 2.50 

"In  Dr.  Hamilton's  writings  there  is  so  quick  a  sympathy  with  the  beautiful  in 
nature  and  art,  so  iuexhiiustible  a  fertility  of  illustration  from  all  departments  of 
tinowledge,  so  pictorial  a  vividness  of  language,  that  his  pages  move  before  us  like  soma 
gluioring  summer  landscape  glowing  in  the  light  of  a  gorgeous  sunset."  —  Observer, 


10       ROBERT  CARTER  AND  BROTHERS*  CATALOGUE. 

Hammond,  Captain 

Life  of.    12mo $1.25 

Hanna,  Rev.  William,  D.D. 

The  Life  of  Ouk  Lokd.    3  vols.    12rao 4.60 

"  There  is  no  parade  of  learning,  no  distracting  foot-notes,  no  allusions  for  the 
eruiite  alone.  It  is  an  unincumbered,  unartificial  work.  "We  are  preft;ented  with  the 
products,  and  not  with  the  processes,  of  reasoning ;  with  the  results  of  scholarship, 
vithout  the  display  of  the  critical  knowledge  on  which  they  are  based. 

"  From  a  perusal  of  these  volumes  we  believe  that  the  sympathetic  reader  will 
carry  away  a  more  distinct  image  of  the  character  and  life  of  Christ  and  his  relations 
to  liis  contemporaries,  than  he  can  gain  from  the  more  brilliant  page  of  PresseDs6,  or 
the  more  elaborate  discussions  of  Neander."  —  North  British  Review. 

Thb  Wars  of  the  Huguenots.    12mo 1.25 

Hart,  John  S. 

Kemovi>'G  Mountains 1.25 

Haste  to  the  Rescue  •   • 75 

Havelock,  General  Sir  Henry, 

Life  of .         •    .    .      .75 

Hawes,  Rev.  Erskine, 

Life  of 1.00 

Helena's  Household. 

A  Tale  of  Kome  in  the  First  Century.    12mo 2.00 

"  The  gladiatorial  scenes  in  the  amphitheatre,  the  burning  of  Rome,  life  in  the 
catacombs,  &c.,  are  all  depicted  with  a  graphic  pen  in  this  powerful  story." 

Henry,  Matthew. 

♦An  Exposition  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.    5  vols,  quarto. 

Sheep ■ .  25.00 

"  For  some  particular  purposes,  and  in  some  particular  respects,  other  commentaries 
may  be  preferable;  but,  taking  it  as  a  whole,  and  a.s  adapted  to  every  class  of  readers, 
this  Commentary  may  be  said  to  combine  more  excellencies  than  any  work  of  the  kind 
which  was  ever  written  in  any  language." —  Rev.  Dr.  Alexander. 

"It  is  the  best  Commentary  by  far  from  any  one  hand  in  the  Englfsh  language, 
anl  we  may  say  the  best  in  the  world."  —  Inrlfpendent. 

"  It  has  never  been  surpjissed."  —  Evangelist. 

Communicant's  Companion .    .    ,       60 

Hervey,  Rev.  James. 

Meditations.     ]2nio L50 

„  18mo .60 

Hetherlngton,  W.  M.,  D.D. 

Chukch  of  Scotland 2. 50 

HisTOUY  of  the  Westminster  Assembly 1  25 

•'  It  contains  the  history  of  one  of  the  most  interesting  portions  of  the  Christian 
Cbnroh,  and  is  distinguished,  as  well  by  its  neat  and  graceful  style,  as  by  the  fulness, 
pewpxcxiity,  and  the  fidelity  of  its  statements." 


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